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Monday, 28 March 2022

THIS MORNING: Covid restrictions eased ahead of Ramadan + Shoukry at landmark MidEast summit in Israel

We seem to have traded the fire hose of news for a sprinkler today — and that’s just fine with us as we hope for the newsflow slowdown that often accompanies the holy month in Egypt. That said, something tells us that Ramadan 2022 won’t be keeping to that trend…

Ramadan starts this Saturday — and covid restrictions are being eased: Shops, restaurants and cafes will be allowed to stay open until 2 am, mawa’id rahman (charity table) gatherings are back, and event halls at major mosques’ will reopen, the government’s covid-19 crisis management committee announced yesterday.

Good news for our friends in the hotel industry: Weddings and celebrations will be allowed in hotel ballrooms starting April, provided everybody follows the precautionary measures, the statement said.

But make no mistake: Wearing masks is still mandatory in closed public spaces and public transport, and shishas are still banned, Cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad said in a phone-in last night (watch, runtime 3:37). Closed spaces include shops, banks and government offices.

Good news for fellow Gourmet Egypt fans: The high-end food retailer is launching a 24-hour home delivery service just in time for Ramadan. The service may just become indispensable to help us through our inevitable late night sohour cravings.

REMINDER- Looking to take the family abroad for Eid, but your kids haven’t registered yet for a vaccine? You can show up at any of the Health Ministry’s designated vaccination centers, youth centers and kiosks at Cairo metro stations to both register and get jabbed on the spot. Kids must be at least 12 years old, according to the Health Ministry’s last update back in December.

The 2022 Oscars were in full swing when we hit ‘Send’ this morning: We’ll have the full rundown on who won what — and the Sean Penn smeltdown — in this afternoon’s EnterprisePM.


WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY-

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is in Israel for a landmark Middle East summit: Shoukry landed yesterday to attend a major two-day summit that will also bring together the foreign ministers of Israel, the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and the United States.

At the top of the agenda: The Iran nuclear agreement. Sources told Israeli media that ministers discussed regional responses to the possible revival of the Iran nuclear agreement, a topic that is expected to dominate the conversation during the two-day gathering. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered reassurances to Israel over a potential accord on the same day that Washington’’s top negotiator downplayed recent optimism from Tehran that an agreement could be imminent.

And the Ukraine conflict: The US is also expected to push the Arab world to provide more support to Ukraine. Israel and the Arab world have so far remained neutral, with Tel Aviv positioning itself as a mediator to end the conflict.

The global press is positioning the “Negev summit” as part of a “geopolitical realignment,” as this Wall Street Journal story makes clear: “New diplomatic and security ties are reshaping the Middle East as former enemies seek unity in containing Iran, the US rethinks its security role in the region, and Russia and China seek to exploit openings left by Washington.”

Cyprus Energy Minister Natasa Pilidou is in town this week heading a delegation of Cypriot companies to discuss business ties with ministers and Egyptian firms. The delegation lands today and stays until 31 March.

The gov’t will sign a loan agreement worth around EUR 75 mn today to finance the acquisition of 55 rail cars for Metro Line 1, Transport Ministry Kamel El Wazir said yesterday.

THIS WEEK-

More fintech regs are due this week: The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) will announce regulations governing the establishment of fintech firms this week, Assistant Chairman Hesham Ramadan told Al Borsa. The rules are drawn from the long-awaited legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives that hands the regulator broad oversight powers over licensing and corporate governance in the sector. We have a run-down on everything we know about the fintech regs here.

PLUS- Credit for the unbanked? The FRA is developing a credit rating system that will allow the unbanked to access credit, Ramadan told the newspaper. Ratings will be assessed based on consumer behavior and non-financial data, he said, without providing further details.

Everyone with a bank account in Egypt will be able to access the Central Bank of Egypt’s new digital payments app by the end of April: All banks operating in Egypt will be integrated into the CBE’s newly-launched InstaPay app by the end of April, Al Mal quoted CBE Assistant Sub-Governor Ehab Nasr as saying. The app provides instant secure payments between Egyptian banks, Meeza cards, and mobile wallets via the central bank’s nationwide instant payment network.

Already included in the network: CIB, the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Alexbank, QNB Al Ahli, Arab Bank, AAIB, Banque du Caire, Egyptian Gulf Bank, and SAIB. You can download the app on Google Play and the App Store.

MARKET WATCH-

US oil won’t be a silver bullet for spiraling crude prices: “A chronic shortage of essential labor and equipment” at Texan oil fields could scupper US President Joe Biden’s plans to halt the runaway rise of crude oil prices, the Financial Times suggests. US production has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels amid lingering bottlenecks, meaning it could take up to a year to significantly increase output, analysts told the FT. That will deal a blow to White House plans to up domestic supply to mitigate rising prices, which have hit USD 120 per barrel since Russia launched its war in Ukraine. And with OPEC+ members facing a similarly slow ramp-up in production, it begs the question as to what — short of complete demand destruction — can realistically be done to stop crude breaching the USD 200 per barrel mark this year as some traders now predict.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

PSA #1: Companies have a little less than two weeks to file their first quarterly ESG compliance report: Listed firms and non-bank financial services companies need to submit their first quarterly ESG report by 10 April, the FRA has said (pdf). The regulator is making it mandatory for corporates to publicly disclose their performance on key environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics each year when they submit their annual financial statements, starting 2023.

Then why does the FRA need ESG reports this April? Companies are required to make quarterly updates throughout 2022 to get feedback from the FRA on the steps they’re taking, before making the official submission at the end of the current financial year.

Check out our Going Green series, where we outlined the new rules around ESG reporting: Part I | Part II.

(** NEED HELP GETTING READY? ** Our parent company can help. Inktank is Egypt’s leading investor relations, ESG and corporate reporting firm. Reach out to Moustafa Taalab on mtaalab@inktankir.com if you’d like to get the conversation started.)

PSA #2– All individual taxpayers have until this Thursday, 31 March, to submit their 2021 tax returns to the Tax Authority. The deadline for companies with January-December fiscal years is 30 April.

Afreximbank and the Angolan Embassy in Egypt are hosting (pdf) an Angola-Egypt investment roundtable on Wednesday at the Hilton Cairo Heliopolis Hotel. Click here to RSVP and join the discussion.

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

enterprise

*** 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: Nurses represent the biggest occupation in healthcare provision, but qualified nursing staff continues to be in short supply in Egypt. As formalized nursing education programs generally do not institutionalize training in patient management and soft skills, private sector healthcare providers are increasingly relying on constant training for nurses on the job to ensure they deliver on quality requirements.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

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