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Sunday, 24 July 2022

Nigerian auto startup plans to launch EVs in Egypt next year

This Nigerian startup is planning to launch EVs in Egypt: Metro Africa Xpress plans to debut its electric vehicles in eight countries in Africa by 2023, including Egypt, Cameroon and Uganda, CEO Adetayo Bamiduro told Bloomberg. The Nigerian startup, backed by private equity firm Lightrock, raised USD 31 mn last year, which will enable it to increase its vehicles to 100k by 2023 from 8k currently, and grow the percentage of EVs in its fleet to 20% from 4%.

Your Swvl ride is getting 5% more expensive: Swvl is raising its fares by 5% in response to the recent hike in petrol prices, CFO Youssef Salem reportedly told Al Shorouk. The mass transport company follows Uber, which last week raised prices in response to the higher fuel costs, and public transport, which hiked fares by 5-7%.

Qalaa Holdings’ shareholders voted to continue the company’s operations during an extraordinary general assembly on Wednesday, despite incurring losses of more than half of its shareholders’ equity, the company said in a disclosure (pdf) to the EGX. The devaluation of the EGP caused the company’s losses to widen to EGP 584.1 mn in 1Q2022, offsetting a surge in revenues.

The CBE wants exporters to use Buna: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is calling on exporting companies to use the Arab Monetary Fund’s regional payment system Buna for cross-border bank transfers, Al Borsa reported. The platform was launched by the AMF in 2020 to increase the use of local currencies in settling payments. It offers instant transfers and charges fixed fees.

Other things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

  • The EU is providing Egypt with a EUR 117.9 mn grant for water and energy efficiency, the International Cooperation Ministry said. (Statement)
  • The National Bank of Egypt is granting real estate developer Ardak an EGP 300 mn loan to restructure its debts. (Al Shorouk)

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