Tabby to triple its local workforce as it turns Egyptian operations into regional support hub: Emirati buy now, pay later firm Tabby will double down on recruitment in Egypt despite announcing last week that it will suspend its local operations due to economic headwinds. The company plans to at least triple its Egypt-based workforce within the next 12 months as it seeks to create a support hub here for its core markets, General Manager Ahmed Khalil told Enterprise yesterday. The company currently employs more than 30 people in Egypt and will expand this to at least 100 to support operations in its key markets — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait — Khalil said.

When life gives you lemons: Tabby last week said it would pause its services in Egypt a mere six months after entering the country due to “recent macroeconomic developments.” The fallout from the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates have tipped the Egyptian economy into crisis over the past year, causing the EGP to lose almost half its value against the greenback and sending inflation to its highest level in five years.

A new office is in the works: Tabby plans to relocate its Egypt team from its current office in Downtown Cairo’s Greek Campus to bigger headquarters within the next couple of months in order to accommodate the new employees, Khalil told us, adding that the firm is still looking for a suitable location.

And bigger plans are ahead: The firm is also looking to expand its operations to other GCC economies soon, Khalil said.

Tabby sees Egypt as an attractive place to grow its workforce despite its retreat from the market. “Egypt is a good place to hire. We’re happy with the caliber we’re getting,” Khalil said. “We have great talent, language skills, and good education, and it makes economic sense compared to hiring in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, for example,” he told us.

A number of global companies are outsourcing more of their ops to Egypt: Tabby is joining the ranks of dozens of companies that have recently outsourced operations to Egypt. In December, 29 global firms — including IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Majid Al Futtaim — inked agreements with the Communications Ministry to increase investments in Egypt and outsource more of their operations.