It’s shaping up to be a news dump day-type of hump day, friends, as we push through a rather busy week.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Egypt is getting a USD 3 bn top-up from the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation to help cover our ballooning wheat import bill, Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 3:08). The agreement doubles the amount of funding the ITFC is making available to Egypt to pay for our wheat and oil imports.

^^We’ll have more on this story and others in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

It’s a thoroughly mixed bag of nuts in the global press this afternoon. Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are leading with Russia’s push to encircle Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, while the Financial Times’ top story is Hungary’s refusal to budge on its opposition to a Russian oil embargo. Elsewhere, Bloomberg reports that Saudi’s Power and Water Utility Co. for Jubail and Yanbu (aka Marafiq) has tapped HSBC Holdings Plc and Riyad Capital to quarterback its planned USD 1.2 bn IPO.

HAPPENING NOW- It’s day 2 at Davos, with global business, policy and media chiefs talking about everything from global tax and the future of work, to the digital economy and all things climate.

Highlights from day 1:

• The prospect of economic weakening and full-on recessions appeared to be on the global leaders’ collective radars, with political leaders and analysts suggesting that the economic outlook has “darkened,” but recessions are only probable at this point in “weaker economies,” IMF boss Kristalina Georgieva said.
• Crypto still doesn’t have lots of fans, with Georgieva saying, “BTC may be called a coin but it's not money. It’s not a stable store of value.” Central bankers echoed the IMF boss’ sentiments, saying cryptocurrencies aren’t “real” yet.
• Plot twist: The rich want to be taxed. Mn’aires at Davos called on governments to tax them to address the “cost of living scandal playing out in multiple nations around the world” and narrow the gap between rich and poor.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Are international car brands cutting Egypt out of their short-term export plans? Both Al Borsa and Al Mal are reporting that as many as eight international auto companies have stopped exporting cars to Egypt on the back of Egypt’s decision to move importers to letters of credit instead of the longstanding process of documentary collection to import goods.
• Egypt Education Platform enters pre-K sector with acquisition of two preschools: Education management firm Egypt Education Platform (EEP) will acquire a majority stake in Montessori preschool chains Trillium and Petals.
• Saudi healthcare group looks to enter Egypt by acquiring New Cairo hospital: Saudi Arabia’s Mouwasat Medical Services has signed a non-binding MoU to acquire 100% of Al Marasem International Hospital in an all-cash transaction

DID YOU MISS THIS WEEK’S WHAT’S NEXT? Last month, we explored how the government has made artificial intelligence a national priority. We spoke with the former ICT Ministry’s advisor for AI Sally Radwan about the government’s national AI strategy and how it is being implemented (Part 1 | Part 2). In another of our virtual podcast roundtables, we sat down with the companies building AI systems in Egypt to get a bird’s eye view on what’s happening in the sector: Who’s adopting it, how they’re going about it, and what challenges they’re facing.

You can catch the episode on our website here (listen, runtime: 44:01), or tune in via Apple Podcasts | Anghami | Google Podcasts | Spotify). Or you can read edited excerpts of our conversation here.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The inaugural edition of FIN Expo Egypt is kicking off tomorrow and will run until Thursday at the Intercontinental Citystars. The expo — organized by UAE’s HQMENA — will feature over 25 companies exhibiting their fintech products and services with 3k visitors expected.

El Gouna International Squash Open 2022 will kick off on Friday and run until the following Friday, 3 June. The competition will feature some of Egypt’s top seeds including world #1 Nouran Gohar and world #2 Ali Farag (who just earned the PSA squash championship cup). The prize pool for each of the men’s and women’s competitions is USD 180k.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a daytime high of 36°C tomorrow before the mercury falls to 20°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

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