Three main topics were vying for the talking heads’ attention last night: The Central Bank of Egypt’s new mortgage finance initiative, increases in the national minimum wage, and the latest round of talks between Palestinian factions in Cairo. We have the full story on the Palestine meeting in the news well above, and Yahduth fi Misr’s Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 1:42), Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan (watch, runtime: 1:26), and Al Hayah Al Youm’s Mohamed Sherdy (watch, runtime: 2:07) all took note.

The eligibility requirements for the mortgage lending initiative are similar to the CBE’s last EGP 20 bn initiative, CBE Deputy Governor Gamal Negm told Sherif Amer. The criteria for low-income earners includes a maximum monthly income of EGP 4k for individuals or EGP 6k for families, and the home that will be purchased through the mortgage cannot be worth more than EGP 350k, Negm said (watch, runtime: 3:17). Middle-income earners whose monthly income does not exceed EGP 10k for individuals and EGP 16k for families will be eligible for a mortgage to buy a home worth no more than EGP 1 mn, according to Negm (watch, runtime: 3:05). Al Hayah Al Youm’s Sherdy also hosted a roundtable discussion on the initiative with economic expert Mohamed Negm and head of the Federation of Egyptian Industries’ Real Estate Division Osama Saad El Din (watch, runtime: 40:17).

More talk of a bump to the private sector minimum wage: Lobby groups are looking to get the private sector a minimum wage that is at least equivalent to — if not higher than — the EGP 2.4k mandated for the public sector, Egyptian Trade Union Federation Chairman Gebali El Maraghi told Amer (watch, runtime: 3:24).

Banque Misr’s acquisition of CI Capital means that three state-owned banks now have financial services outfits through which they can put their deposits to work, Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi said (watch, runtime: 5:36). As we noted yesterday, the CI acquisition follows the National Bank of Egypt’s Ahly Capital acquiring Pharos in 2019 and NI Capital acquiring Bank Audi’s Arabeya Online brokerage late last year.

Also on the airwaves last night:

• The real estate tax filing deadline could, be pushed but you should stick to the current deadline in case the Finance Ministry decides not to grant another grace period, head of the Tax Authority’s research department Ragab Mahrous said. (Lamees El Hadidi on Kelma Akhira | watch, runtime: 0:42)