Last night was a mixed bag of nuts on a rather humdrum night on the airwaves. Banking system statistics, healthcare, and national projects were among the topics keeping the country’s talking heads occupied.

Deposits by Egyptians in local banks reached EGP 4 tn for the first time, the Central Bank of Egypt’s latest statistical monthly bulletin showed. Egyptians are resorting to certificates of deposit as a source of a steady income they could rely on “in times of economic slowdown,” says Al Hayah Al Youm’s Khaled Abu Bakr (watch, runtime: 2:14).

Presidential initiative to eliminate surgical procedure waiting lists: The “100 mn healthy lives,” an initiative the president announced in July 2018, has so far seen close to 233k surgeries conducted, Al Hayah Al Youm’s Khaled Abu Bakr said (watch, runtime: 5:46). The initiative will continue for the next 3-5 years until the universal healthcare program can pick up the slack.

CIT Ministry to begin work on new capital telecom network: Abu Bakr also highlighted news that state-owned Telecom Egypt will start working on the new capital’s EGP 40 bn telecommunications network as part of the first development phase of the city (watch, runtime: 1:54). We have this story in the Telecoms + ICT section, below.