Egypt: Country with immense potential and increasingly diverse business opportunities | Meet our community

Beyond the rich history and thriving culture, Egypt is a country of many advantages that has evolved into a desirable ground for investors: it has geographically favourable location, highest population in the region and well-balanced yet diverse economy with sustainable growth. Having vast experience with helping international brands to grow their business in Egypt, our colleagues Mohamed Fathalla and Ahmed Khadr from Fathalla Solutions, the leading player in local BPO services sector, provide a high-level overview of most important aspects about the environment and framework for investors in terms of growing their business opportunities in Egypt.

What do you consider to be the biggest opportunities on the Egyptian market at the moment? 

The Egyptian market has long been known to be one of the most popular consumer markets, making it an important target for all investors. The most important characteristic of Egypt is its unique geographical location in the heart of the world, which makes it a gateway between Africa, Europe and Asia, as it overlooks the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, as well as the Great Nile River, which is the longest river in the world, extending from the far north of Africa to far south.

One of the most important economic events that occurred in Egypt in the month of November 2016 is Egypt’s adoption of the floating Egyptian pound policy, which led to the devaluation of the Egyptian pound by almost 50%.

This sharp decline in the value of the Egyptian pound does not always mean something negative, but rather has a positive side for foreign investors because it means an increase in the purchasing power of their currencies compared to the Egyptian pound, which makes the market a more fertile land for investments. On the other hand, all of this made Egypt one of the best countries in the world, mainly in the field of BPO services, in addition to the availability of skilled and cheap labour and the huge progress in information technology over the last decade. Egypt is considered as one of the 10 Best Countries to outsource software development in the world.

During the past few years, the government managed to create a good investment climate for foreign investors, aided by a strong banking system to stimulate the Egyptian economy and facilitate procedures for both foreign and domestic investors as well.

The country’s efforts in the field of energy source discoveries have greatly helped in solving the energy crisis, which has caused Egypt to transform from an importing country into an energy exporter to many destinations of the world.

What makes Egypt stand out in the region?

Egypt has one of the best trade agreements in the world, as the country’s multiple free trade agreements provide access to 1.5 billion consumers, of which 100 million consumers are in Egypt. Egypt’s real GDP growth rates for 2018-2019 was 5.6%.

The trade agreements include:

• Pan Arab Free Trade Agrement/ Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement (GAFTA)
• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
• Agadir Free Trade Agreement
• Egypt-EU Association Agreement
• Egypt-EFTA Free Trade Agreement
• Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ)

Last but not least, Egypt’s young and educated workforce provides investors with access to talented labour. Their passion and creativity, together with legislative support, helped to include Egypt among the top 10 countries worldwide to launch start-ups, according to Forbes in 2015. The country boasts a large, young, well-trained and highly competitive labour force of around 29.1 million, representing more than 31% of the total Egyptian population. With a bustling population of over 100 million, 50% of which are below the age of 30, Egypt is aggressively proving its position as one of the fastest growing entrepreneurial hubs in the world.