Good afternoon, friends, and happy Monday. We got off to a rather slow start in the news cycle today, but we’re getting the feeling that things will be picking up steam as the day wears on.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Egyptian expats can now buy a USD-denominated pension plan in Egypt through Misr Life Ins. and the National Bank of Egypt , Financial Regulatory Authority boss Mohamed Farid said at a presser today. The new offering will allow expats 18-59 living abroad to buy into a pension plan with a monthly USD payment, which can then be redeemed as a lump sum or in monthly payouts over 10-15 years, according to Youm7. The minimum and maximum buy-ins for the pension plan have yet to be announced.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Leading the conversation in the international business press this afternoon: The RUB has hit a 17-month low against the USD , slumping to RUB 101 / USD 1. The Russian currency has now lost c.30% of its value against the USD this year, making it one of the world’s worst-performing currencies in 2023. The drop has more than undone the RUB’s gains from last year, when oil and gas prices spiked, buoying the country’s revenues from fossil fuel exports before Western countries began imposing sanctions. The story is getting front-page play from Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and CNBC.

HAPPENING NOW-

Egypt, Palestine, Jordan to talk Palestinian conflict in Alamein: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Jordan’s King Abdullah are set to discuss developments in Palestine during their three-way summit in Alamein today, according to an Ittihadiya statement. This comes almost seven months after a similar meeting in Cairo saw the three parties discussing escalating tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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

  • Misr Hotels Company does not intend to offload a majority stake and has received no offers from local companies for an acquisition.
  • Update on the car import scheme: Some 84k Egyptian expats who have registered in the expat car import initiative and received payment invoices will have to complete their payments within a month from 13 August in order to obtain import approvals.
  • Honing in on the gov’t plan to draw FX through real estate sales: The cabinet yesterday reviewed recommendations for its plan to attract hard currency through the sale of Egyptian real estate to both foreigners and Egyptian expats

MARK YOUR CALENDARS- The Enterprise Finance Forum is taking place on 18-19 September at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. This flagship forum is the latest in our must-attend series of invitation-only, C-suite-level gatherings that allow senior members of our community to openly and frankly discuss critical issues in key sectors of the economy.

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LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST-

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IN THIS WEEK’S EPISODE- It’s the very first panel of the Enterprise Climate Forum: Egypt brought home major victories from COP27, signing framework agreements for about USD 85 bn worth of green hydrogen projects, and announcing more than USD 10 bn in funding for the Nexus for Food, Water and Energy (NWFE) program. While we have a long way to go before much of the wins from COP27 will be tangible to the private sector, the opportunities in green hydrogen and NWFE are “now.” Our panelists helped explain how these two can be made actionable. We were joined by Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, Khalid Hamza, Director and head of Egypt at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Khaled Naguib, CEO of Hydrogen Egypt.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Our favorite weather app tells us to expect the weather to remain relatively unchanged from today, peaking at 38°C during the day before dropping to a nighttime low of 23°C.

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