You won’t be allowed to buy a jab on the private market

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to hump day. Get through Tuesday and we’ll slide into the weekend together over the next couple of days.

*** CATCH UP QUICK from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM — it was a big news day:

• Saudi’s Public Investment Fund is taking leading offshore outfit Ades International private
• Banque Misr won’t hike its offer price for CI Capital
• Turkey’s FM says Ankara really wants to patch things up with Cairo

No single story dominates the news cycle this morning after a heavy news day yesterday, but we as a nation made a big thing out of international women’s day yesterday, starting with coverage of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s call for more women to be admitted to the ranks of the nation’s prosecution service and other arms of the state judicial apparatus. We have more on that in this morning’s news well, below.

STATISTIC OF THE DAY- Zero. That’s Egypt’s score on the marriage and pay indicators in the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law report, which looks at “laws and regulations affecting women’s economic inclusion.” The report points to the lack of legislation ensuring women’s rights to equal pay as well as to work in the same industries and types of jobs as men. Egypt also currently lacks legislation that addresses domestic violence, does not allow women the same rights to divorce as men, and as you might expect, the Personal Status Act comes in for criticism for a multiplicity of failings. You can find the Egypt snapshot here (pdf).

On the bright side: Egypt has relatively good scores on the workplace and entrepreneurship indicators, as there is currently legislation in place prohibiting workplace [redacted] harassment and discrimination in employment based on gender. Women are also able to access lines of credit and sign contracts as much as men are, which clears the path for entrepreneurship. Egypt also gets a perfect score on the pensions indicator, thanks to men and women getting the same pension benefits and having the same retirement age.

We would also tip our hat at the Financial Regulatory Authority, which ordered last year that all publicly traded companies have at least one woman member of their board of directors by this year. By our math, barely 50% of companies have so far complied.

Women will now have an easier time opening bank accounts and getting credit cards with CIB under a financial inclusion initiative that will run until the end of March, the bank said in a statement. Details in the link.

Eyeing something with a designer label? You might be able to do good while you get that dopamine fix: Online luxury retailer Net-a-Porter launched a community-first campaign, #PowerToChange, in partnership with Women for Women International, which focuses on helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. The campaign introduces a capsule collection of 13 exclusive pieces that vary from custom t-shirts to jewelry, the Financial Times reports.

One of the standouts: Egyptian homeware startup Malaika, which is taking part with a new collection of linens — handcrafted with Egyptian cotton — that will see all proceeds donated to Threads of Hope initiative — a Cairo-based embroidery school dedicated to empowering women out of poverty. Tap or click here to check out the full collection.

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THERE’S NO DOMINANT STORY ABROAD, with at least three pieces of news worth knowing about as you start your workday:

The biggest of them: The Nasdaq is in correction territory — defined as a 10% drop from a recent peak — as tech stocks fell again yesterday. The Dow advanced 1%, while the S&P shed 0.5%. The Wall Street Journal says analysts think “investors [believe] that the largest media, communications and online-shopping companies will log a slower pace of growth as pandemic lockdowns end.”

Don’t panic just yet: Futures at dispatch time suggest Wall Street — including Nasdaq — will open in the green later today, as will just about all major European indices. Asian markets are mixed this morning, with the Nikkei and Hang Seng in the green while Shanghai and Korea’s Kospi are both slightly in the red.

ALSO: Bloomberg worries that USD 70 oil threatens the global economic recovery, even if it gives a boost to our allies in the GCC. And Apollo Global Management is merging with life ins. outfit Athene Holding, “transforming the alternative asset manager into a financial conglomerate with a market capitalisation worth almost USD 30 bn,” the Financial Times writes.

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PSA- Mmm, warm dust. Moderate winds are set to blow dust over much of Egypt, with the sandy conditions due to last until tomorrow morning, according to the national weather service. Look for a high today of 30°C with the mercury rising to 35°C tomorrow.

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CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

It’s the final day of the EFG Hermes Virtual Investor Conference. The conference is headlined as “Frontier Emerging Markets Regaining Momentum” and brings together executives from 197 companies and more than 700 investors from 253 global institutions to exchange insights on the current state of frontier and emerging markets.

Oil Minister Tarek El Molla will discuss the government’s strategy to attract investment to Egypt’s mining sector at an event hosted by AmCham on Thursday, 11 March.

Business tech expert and TEDx speaker Patrick Schwerdtfeger will explain how entrepreneurs, businesses and investors can harness disruptive tech at a webinar hosted by AmCham on Tuesday, 16 March. The two-hour event will see Schwerdtfeger talk block chain, AI and crypto, and discuss how the business community can reposition in a world undergoing rapid technological change.

Key data points in the coming days and weeks:

• Inflation data will drop on Wednesday, 10 March.
• The Central Bank of Egypt will discuss interest rates on Thursday, 18 March.

You have until the end of the month to file your personal taxes: Individual taxpayers must file their income tax and property tax returns through the electronic filing system before 31 March. Property taxes can be paid online or at any tax office. D-day for corporations is the end of April.

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

Private companies will not be allowed to independently provide covid-19 vaccines to the public, cabinet said in a statement yesterday, refuting rumors that suggested otherwise. Vaccines will only be available via the Health Ministry’s website and cannot be purchased from private companies, the statement said.

That doesn’t mean the private sector can’t import them: Prime Speed Medical last month became the first company to get the go-ahead to import vaccines. It has reportedly agreed to purchase 10 mn doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The company will import the vaccines — which will be distributed by the Health Ministry — on behalf of the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement, Speed Medical said in an EGX disclosure (pdf) yesterday. It was careful to note that its import of Sputnik doesn’t mean that it will be selling and administering the jab to the general public.

But some MPs think private companies should be handed a role in distribution: Ayman Aboul Ela, member of the House Human Rights Committee, has submitted a proposal to the Health Ministry suggesting that it allow companies to help distribute the vaccine to speed up the rollout, Youm7 reports.

The Health Ministry reported 591 new covid-19 infections yesterday, up from 581 the day before. The ministry also reported 43 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 11,038. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 187,094 confirmed cases of covid-19.

The Health Ministry wants you to resist the urge to gather all your friends and family members over fitar or sohour this Ramadan to avoid spreading covid-19 during the Holy Month, Al Hayah Al Youm’s Mohamed Sherdy noted (watch, runtime: 1:31).

Poorer countries are unlikely to have vaccinated the majority of their populations before 2023, executives at Swiss-German freight company Kuehne+Nagel, which is distributing covid-19 vaccines for the WHO’s Covax scheme, told the Financial Times. Even in wealthier nations, the estimated waiting time for healthy adults to receive a first dose is around 15 months, said Detlef Trefzger, CEO of the company. Adar Poonawalla, who is overseeing the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing operation as the head of India’s Serum Institute, has also said that vaccines would not be available for everyone in the world before the end of 2024 at the earliest.

Private gatherings — sans mask — are now allowed for fully vaccinated individuals in the US, as per new guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC isn’t quite recommending a full return to life as it was in 2019, but says that those who are two weeks past their second dose of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines or their single dose of the Johnson & Johnson’s jab can begin easing some precautionary measures.

WHO: Vaccine passports are not a good idea. Given the inadequate global vaccine supply, there are “real practical and ethical considerations” that could lead “inequity and unfairness [to] be further branded into the system” with the introduction of vaccination passports, Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief said at a presser yesterday (watch, runtime 60:15). The EU is currently mulling how to introduce these passports, after the bloc’s leaders agreed last month that the scheme was “necessary.”

Women judges could soon be appointed to the Council of State (Maglis El Dawla) and the Supreme Judicial Council, after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ordered Justice Minister Omar Marwan yesterday to bring women judges into these bodies, according to a Justice Ministry statement. The president also called for the Prosecutor General’s Office to appoint more women prosecutors. El Sisi’s orders, timed to coincide with international women’s day, pointed to the constitutionally enshrined equality of genders and non-discrimination clauses.

What are these councils and why are they important? The Council of State (Maglis El Dawla) is the country’s administrative court system and is mandated with judicial matters related to the government. Many types of legislation need its signoff before the House passes them, and it has jurisdiction over contracts to which the state or any public entity is a party. While not unheard of, women judges in “significant” courts that fall under the Council of State’s umbrella are rare. The Supreme Judicial Council’s mandate covers administrative issues of the judiciary, and is responsible for selecting the country’s Prosecutor General.

SOUND SMART- The Egyptian judicial system was exclusively filled with male judges until 2003, when Tahani El Gebali became the first woman judge to be directly appointed to the Supreme Constitutional Court. At the time, she was the only woman judge out of 9,300 people on the bench. As of 2017, Egypt had 66 women judges in its entire judiciary, according to the World Bank (pdf).

As many as 5 mn construction workers are currently without work as the sector waits on a new set of building and planning criteria, head of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce’s Building Materials Division Ahmed El Zeiny tells Al Mal. The division is lobbying the government to fast-track the new framework to allow construction to resume, particularly as small players in the industry are feeling the pinch the most, El Zeiny said.

Background: The government had announced a six-month construction ban last year in a crackdown on building code violations after getting a sharper teeth to clamp down on illegal construction when the House of Representatives passed the Unified Building Code in March 2020. Last we heard, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly presented last month the proposed building and planning criteria to the House Local Administration and House Housing committees. The new regulations will cover everything from building height, ratios, and usage to urban coordination and hoops builders need to jump through before they can start construction.

We have committees in the newly-reinstated Senate after the selection yesterday of committee chairs for the upper chamber of parliament. The full rundown of business-relevant committees and their chairs, courtesy of Youm7:

• Financial, Economic, and Investment Affairs Committee, chaired by Hany Salah Sarie ElDin;
• Trade, Industry, and MSMEs Committee, chaired by Hanan Abdel Moneim Ali;
• Energy, Environment, and Manpower Committee, chaired by Abdel Khalek Mohamed Ayad;
• Housing, Local Administration, and Transport Committee, chaired by Mostafa Kamel El Sayed;
• Education, Scientific Research, and CIT Committee, chaired by Mohamed Nabil Dabas;
• Constitutional and Legislative Committee, chaired by Abdallah Amin Asr;
• Foreign, Arab, and African Affairs Committee, chaired by Abdel Hay Refaie Ebeid;
• Health and Population Committee, chaired by Mohamed Mohamed Gazar.

Egypt’s crowded online ordering segment just got a new competitor as delivery-turned-loyalty and engagement app Koinz reported raising a USD 4.8 mn seed round led by Tinder founder and former CMO Justin Mateen, TechCrunch reports. The F&B startup will use the funds to expand its team and operations across the Middle East. The app will in many respects go head to head with established competitors Elmenus and whatever Otlob is calling itself these days. UberEats left the field last year in the early months of the pandemic.

What does the app do? The “mobile app for takeout and delivery orders … manages offline customer experiences while delivering an engagement platform to manage loyalty programs, customer feedback and analytics about the online and offline customer base,” Tech Crunch reports.

What does that mean? Customers accumulate points for both offline and online orders. One example TechCrunch cites: “Buffalo Burger customers can exchange 68 points for a Diablo Fries Medium; or wait till they get to 160 points to get a Mozzarella Sticks Medium; or 236 points for a Double Diggler” — but they can’t redeem their points at a competing restaurant.

How does it make a buck? The three-year-old, 80-person company “charges subscriptions to the brands for its engagement and feedback platform and collects commission whenever an order is made via its platform.”

EastMed talks with Greece: Bilateral ties and recent regional developments in the Eastern Med were on the agenda for Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who met in Cairo yesterday, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. Dendias also met with Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit ahead of wider talks between the Egyptian and Greek delegations.

Reading between the lines: Although the statements are scant on the details, all evidence points to Shoukry and Dendias focusing on the situation with Turkey. Just hours before the sit-down, Turkey reiterated its interest in negotiating maritime issues in the Eastern Mediterranean with Egypt after Ankara called for the negotiations last week, saying it wanted to “turn a new page” with Cairo. Egypt denied it was in unilateral negotiations over a demarcation agreement with Turkey in the EastMed, saying it will not negotiate without the presence of Cyprus and Greece.

Background: Egypt and Turkey’s relationship turned extra-frosty last year after Ankara refused to recognize an agreement between Egypt and Greece creating a joint economic zone in the Eastern Mediterranean, accusing the two countries of infringing on its continental shelf. Since then, tensions between Athens and Ankara have also flared up over Turkey’s energy exploration in the EastMed, but Turkey also signaled it would be willing to make peace with the region and be included in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum.

ELSEWHERE IN FOREIGN POLICY- Egypt and France conducted joint naval drills in the Red Sea, the Armed Forces said in a statement.

Tarek Rouchdy (LinkedIn) has been appointed an independent director of the board at CIB as of yesterday, the bank said in a statement. Rouchdy has four decades of experience in banking, internal audit, and risk management and is a former head of internal audit at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the African Development Bank, as well as a commissioner of the UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact. He also had a yearlong stint as CFO at the Central Bank of Egypt in 2006-2007.

MEANWHILE: Fifteen new ambassadors are now accredited in Egypt after presenting their credentials yesterday to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, according to an Ittihadiya statement. The new ambassadors are:

• Louis Dumas (Canada)
• Hamad Saeed Al Shamsi (UAE)
• Mohamed Ben Youssef (Tunisia)
• Amjad Odeh Adaileh (Jordan)
• Abdullah bin Nasser bin Musallam Al Rahbi (Oman)
• Ntsiki Joseph Mashimbye (South Africa)
• Sajid Bilal (Pakistan)
• Lutfi Rauf (Indonesia)
• Phutthaphon Phukmot (Thailand)
• Manuel Morales Lama (Dominican Republic)
• M.K. Pathmanathan (Sri Lanka)
• Feliu Hanushek Heavendaka (Namibia)
• Ilyas Sheikh Omar Abubakar (Somalia)
• Serge Danion (Benin)
• Bunim Shuangm (Laos)

The talking heads once again followed the printed press’ lead last night, focusing most of their coverage on women’s rights as the world observed International Women’s Day. Al Hayah Al Youm’s Mohamed Sherdy sat down with Elham Mahmoud, who was named the Best Woman Scientist in the 2020 African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence and Economics Professor Yomn El Hamaki for an extensive chat about the importance of empowering women and incorporating them in the labor force (watch, runtime: 27:23).

Give us a break, begad: While El Sherdy’s guests had plenty of interesting insight to give, we’re having a hard time getting over the host opening the segment by wondering aloud why there’s no International Men’s Day.

Egypt’s judiciary will look into how to appoint women to the Council of State (Maglis El Dowla) and Supreme Judicial Council, and whether they would be appointed to entry-level positions in the judicial system or fast-tracked to higher rankings, Justice Minister Omar Marwan told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi. Lamees was full of praise for President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s call to appoint women to the councils, which we recap in full in the news well, above (watch, runtime: 8:40). Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa also had a similar chat with Marwan (watch, runtime: 5:28).

Reaching a demarcation agreement in the Eastern Mediterranean with Egypt would be a “lifeline” for Turkey if Cairo agrees to Ankara’s proposal, seeing as Turkey has isolated itself in the region with its aggressions towards Cyprus and Greece, pundit Mohamed Hamed told Moussa. The change in Turkey’s stance towards us also comes as evidence that Ankara has failed at finding a way to pressure Egypt through other issues, such as its interference in Libya and backing Ethiopia in the protracted Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations (watch, runtime: 10:09).

A handful of headlines to skim this morning on an otherwise quiet day for Egypt in the foreign press:

• Egyptian students could learn the common values between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism through a proposed school subject that would see verses from the Torah taught in the national curriculum for the first time. (Al Monitor)
• Meet the woman behind Happy Africa: Philanthropist Sarah El Amin was recently awarded a medal of honor by the state after returning to Egypt from volunteer work to treat AIDS patients in Kenya and launching the Happy Africa Organization, which helps communities in Africa. (Arab News)
• Mo Salah on Afcon qualifiers squad list despite covid fears: Mohamed Salah has been called up to play in an upcoming African Cup of Nations qualifier despite concerns in the UK over footballers traveling for games abroad. (Daily Mail)
• A Sudanese couple based in Egypt is running a charity center in Giza that serves food to fellow migrants and refugees who can’t afford basic necessities after losing their jobs during the pandemic. (Reuters)

A few things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

• European Universities in Egypt — an organization that will manage branches of the University of London and University of Central Lancashire in Egypt — will establish its headquarters in the new administrative capital under a presidential decree.
• The government will begin implementing a new three-year export subsidy program in FY2021-2022 that aims to increase exports by 10% in its first year and 15-20% in its second.
• The Trade and Industry Ministry has extended its ban on white sugar imports introduced in June for another three months.
• A three-year project to promote a circular economy model for single-use plastics will soon come to Egypt with the help of the UN Industrial Development Organization and USD 3 mn of funding from Japan.
• Egypt Post is looking to grow local logistics and e-commerce services through a cooperation protocol with Mail America.

US looks to wind down Afghan war: The US has called for six-way UN-led peace talks in Afghanistan to reach a political settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban. In a letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged a 90-day reduction in violence ahead of proposed talks between the US, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and India. The US government has not decided whether it will stick to the Trump administration’s 1 May deadline to fully withdraw troops from the country, Blinken said.

Also worth knowing this morning:

• Qatar rapprochement: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud was in Doha yesterday for talks with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on boosting relations, Qatar’s state news agency QNA reported. The visit comes after Egypt, Saudi the UAE, and Bahrain, earlier this year ended their four-year embargo of the statelet.
• Assad catches covid: Syrian president Bashar Al Assad and his wife have tested positive for covid-19, the Associated Press reports.

March: Potential visit to Cairo by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

9-11 March (Tuesday-Thursday): EduGate 2021 – Enter The Future conference, Kempinski Royal Maxim Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

11 March (Thursday): AmCham event featuring Oil Minister Tarek El Molla.

11-12 March (Thursday-Friday): Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok will arrive for a two-day visit to follow up on GERD talks.

11-13 March (Thursday-Saturday): Cairo Fashion & Tex trade show, Cairo International Convention Centre, Cairo, Egypt

11-14 March (Thursday-Sunday): First edition of Afaq Real Estate Expo, Tolip El Galaa Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

11-15 March (Thursday – Monday): Al Bazaar fair for handicrafts and house decors, Cairo International Conference Centre, Cairo, Egypt.

11-20 March (Thursday-Saturday): Photopia’s Cairo Photo Week 2021 will take place with this year’s theme being Depth OFF Field.

16 March (Tuesday): AmCham webinar featuring business tech expert Patrick Schwerdtfeger.

18 March (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

23 March (Tuesday): The second edition of the Egypt Retail Summit takes place at the Nile Ritz Carlton hotel.

25-27 March (Thursday-Saturday): The Real Gate real estate exhibition, Egyptian International Exhibition Center, Cairo.

29-30 March (Monday-Tuesday): Arab Federation of Exchanges Annual Conference 2021.

31 March (Wednesday): Deadline to visit the moroor and get an RFID sticker affixed to your car’s windshield — or run afoul of the Traffic Police.

31 March (Wednesday): Income tax deadline for individuals. Real estate tax deadline.

1-3 April (Thursday-Saturday): HVAC-R Egypt Expo.

8-10 April (Thursday-Saturday): The TriFactory’s Endurance Festival at Somabay.

13 April (Monday): First day of Ramadan (TBC).

25 April (Sunday): Sinai Liberation Day.

29 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC),

29 April (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1 May (Saturday): Labor Day (national holiday).

2 May (Sunday): Easter Sunday.

3 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

13-15 May (Thursday-Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25-28 May (Tuesday-Friday): The World Economic Forum annual meeting, Singapore.

1 June (Tuesday): The IMF will conduct a second review of targets set under the USD 5.2 bn standby loan approved in June 2020 (proposed date).

7 June-9 June (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

17 June (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

24 June (Thursday): End of the 2020-2021 academic year (public schools).

26-29 June (Saturday-Tuesday): The Big 5 Construct Egypt, Cairo International Convention Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 June (Wednesday): 30 June Revolution Day.

1 July: (Thursday): National holiday in observance of 30 June Revolution.

30 June- 15 July: National Book Fair.

1 July (Thursday): Large taxpayers that have not yet signed on on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

19 July (Monday): Arafat Day (national holiday).

20-23 July (Tuesday-Friday): Eid Al Adha (national holiday)

23 July (Friday): Revolution Day (national holiday).

5 August (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

9 August (Monday): Islamic New Year.

12 August (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Islamic New Year.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

27 June – 3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.