Good morning, everyone, and a very happy Monday to you all on this holiday-shortened week.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

The IMF is holding a virtual press conference today on the disbursal of the USD 1.6 bn third and final tranche of our USD 5.2 bn standby loan, Al Shorouk reports. IMF mission chief Celine Allard will discuss the second review of policy reform targets set under the facility, which was approved in June 2020.

Oil Minister Tarek El Molla will speak at AmCham’s virtual monthly event from 3-4pm. The minister will discuss recent developments in the industry.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is in Rome today for a meeting of the global anti-Daesh coalition, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

It’s the third day of the Big 5 Construct Egypt at the Cairo International Convention Center.

WHAT’S HAPPENING ABROAD- There are two stories grabbing the attention of the international business press this morning:

• US building collapse: The collapse of a 12-storey condo in Florida is still making the front pages of most US media, from the Washington Post to the WSJ;
• Airstrikes in Iraq: US forces have carried out airstrikes against Iran-linked militias in Iraq and Syria. They story is everywhere from the NYT to Bloomberg.

SIGN OF THE TIMES- There’s now a black market for fake vaccination certificates in Moscow, where the Russian capital’s mayor has mandated covid-19 jabs for more than half of all service-sector employees as of today, the Washington Post reports. Workers who interact with the public, including teachers, taxi drivers, salespeople and waiters, are among those on the run to save their jobs by either getting vaccinated — or purchasing bogus vaccination certificates. Fake certificates are going for the equivalent of about USD 25.

** CATCH UP QUICK with the top stories from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM:

• Contact to tap sukuk market in 3Q2021: Contact Financial Holding plans to issue sukuk worth EGP 2.5-3 bn in 3Q2021 to finance its subsidiaries.
• Egypt’s first local green bond sale nears: The first local green bonds sale worth USD 100 mn could kick off within two to three weeks.
• SMEs are slated for growth: Over 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt are confident that their business will perform well next year.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Cairo International Book Fair will open its doors at the Egypt International Exhibition Center on Wednesday, 30 June. The two-week event will run through to 15 July.

The Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) MENA are holding a webinar titled Energy Efficiency in the MENA region: Status and Outlook on 6 July at 3:30pm.

The British Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) is organizing a virtual education week from 5-6 July with three seminars planned. The first, taking place at 10am on 5 July, will discuss skills-based learning while the future of investment in education will be the topic on the table at 12:30pm the same day. On 6 July, a talk on the digitalization of education in Egypt will be held at 12pm.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

*** It’s Blackboard day: We have our weekly look at the business of education in Egypt, from pre-K through the highest reaches of higher ed. Blackboard appears every Monday in Enterprise in the place of our traditional industry news roundups.

In today’s issue: Egypt’s private sector K-12 student growth has almost doubled in the last five years, and players are expanding every day. One of those players is BalancED Education Company. We sat down with chairman Ahmed El Bakry and managing director Salma El Bakry to talk about how they’re planning to invest EGP 1.2 bn in the next three years, the status of private education in Cairo and other governorates, and how they make sure they have their own pipeline of certified teachers.