Three Egyptian companies made it onto Forbes’ 10 Sustainable Companies in MENA list: Solar EPC and financing company Cairo Solar, recycling and waste disposal company Egyptian Company for Solid Waste Recycling and solar distributor KarmSolar.

EFG Hermes’ consumer finance arm Valu snagged the “fintech company of the year” award at the inaugural Gulf Business Tech Awards, which were held on the sidelines of electronics expo Gitex in Dubai last week, EFG said in a press release (pdf).

The factoring industry’s global body Factoring Chain International has tapped Egypt Factors General Manager Doaa Hafez (LinkedIn) as an executive committee member, making her the first Arab and African woman to make it onto the committee, according to Al Masry Al Youm.

Zaki Hashem & Partners was named the IFLR1000 “law firm of the year” for Egypt in 2020-2021, in recognition of “landmark transactions” including Egypt’s first green bond issuance and its work on the Cairo monorail project, the law firm said in an emailed statement (pdf). Senior Associated Peter Maurice was named “rising star lawyer (Egypt).” The awards were handed out during the IFLR Middle East Awards 2021 ceremony held in Dubai yesterday.

Damietta is one of 10 cities to receive UNESCO’s Learning Cities Award for its implementation of the learning city strategy outlined by UNESCO (pdf). Other awardees include Dublin, Ireland; Shanghai in China; Jubail Industrial City in Saudi; and Qatar’s Al Wakra.

Digital transformation scholarship: Graduates can now sign up for a “digital transformation” scholarship that is being launched by Microsoft and the Communications Ministry to increase knowledge of advanced technologies. The course will allow students to specialize in one of six different fields, including cloud infrastructure, database management and data science, through “several training platforms, virtual classes and practical exercises,” the ministry said without providing further information. There are only 1k places available; you can register here.