Egypt Roundup: Loans, free surgeries, documentation of refugees

Minimum interest on loans

The Central Bank of Egypt has instructed banks to apply a minimum interest rate of 24% on loans to protect bank deposits from the negative impact of high-yield certificate of deposits (CDs) issued by the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and leading banking institution Banque Misr, local media Ahram Online reports. The new CDs have annual yields exceeding Egypt’s current borrowing interest rates, prompting asset-liability committees to consider re-pricing their offerings based on market rates.

Free surgeries initiative

The Egyptian government has announced that since the presidential initiative to remove waiting lists in the North African country, 67,028 free surgeries have been carried out. The effort was started to reduce the burden on citizens and enhance their general health across all age groups. According to local media Akhbar El Yom, 25,457 free procedures in a range of specialisations, including eye, brain, and nerve surgeries, were completed in the last year. The undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in Minya, a city located south of Cairo has said that 21 hospitals in Minya carried out the programme.

Documentation of refugees

Mostafa Madbouly, the prime minister of Egypt, has stressed the importance of recording the 8–9 million refugees and immigrants from 133 different countries that reside in the country. The average age of the population of refugees, according to the Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, is 35 years old, with 50.4% of them being men and 49.6% being women. According to Ahram Online, 60% of refugees have lived in Egypt for ten years, and 6% have assimilated into Egyptian society in the last fifteen years.

Export of trained Egyptian workers

Egypt's prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, has established a working committee to create an integrated action plan for exporting cadres and trained Egyptian workers, local media Al-Masry Al-Youm reports. According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the prime minister at a ministerial meeting on January 9 spoke about the necessity of technical credentials and specialised training programmes to hone abilities and grant required permits for their employment overseas.

Improving conditions of citizens

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has ordered a rise in spending on sustainable employment and bettering the living conditions of the citizens, according to Mohamed Maeet, the minister of finance in Egypt. “The state is keen on continuing the implementation of decent Life initiative to improve the living conditions of 60% of the Egyptians living in the countryside,” Maeet is quoted by the State Information Service. The guidelines also sought to lessen the financial constraints on the citizens by increasing pensions and public employee compensation in the new fiscal year 2024–2025 budget, the State Information Service reports.