Good afternoon, friends. We hope you’re enjoying your first day back to a fresh new workweek. The news cycle seems to be off to a slow start after the excitement of the GEM’s opening last night, but it’s too early to tell if it will hold.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

📍 Four Gulf banks will subscribe in our first-ever local sukuk issuance hitting the market tomorrow, with settlement scheduled for the day after, according to a document seen by EnterpriseAM. The first EGP 3 bn, three-year tranche of the program will be an ijara issuance — a leasing-based Islamic security — linked to assets owned by the Finance Ministry in the Red Sea’s Ras Shukeir area, a source told us last week.

Who’s interested? Our maiden local sukuk issuance has attracted the interest of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Kuwait Finance House, Faisal Islamic Bank, and Al Baraka Islamic Bank, in addition to primary dealers from our banking sector, a senior government source told EnterpriseAM. “This involvement is expected to enhance the competitiveness of the new issuances,” our source told us.

Strong bank appetite prompted the Finance Ministry to quadruple its wider sukuk program to EGP 200 bn planned for the fiscal year, a senior government source told us. This represents eightfold the target of the original program, before being doubled last month amid strong appetite. This comes after several meetings between officials from the Finance Ministry and representatives from 15 banks to further raise the program value.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 US President Donald Trump’s threat of military action against Nigeria is leading the digital front pages this afternoon, ordering the Pentagon to begin military planning. Trump also threatened to cut off aid to the West African nation, effective immediately, accusing them of failing to thwart the persecution of Christians in the country.

“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the [US] will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said on Truth Social. “It will be fast, vicious, and sweet,” the Nobel Peace Prize self-nominee said.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rejected the accusations, affirming Nigeria’s constitutional assurances of religious liberty in a statement published on X. “The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” the statement reads. (CNN | Bloomberg | Guardian | Reuters | New York Times)

enterprise

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly Sunday briefing on all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry explores what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning through to product distribution, land allocation, industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, and regulation and policy.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in for a cloudy day in the capital tomorrow, with a high of 30°C and a low of 22°C, according to our favorite weather app.

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