Good morning, wonderful people. We have a big issue for you on this very windy Cairo morning.

Up first: No more customs-free mobile phone for you. The Finance Ministry has rescinded a year-old ruling that granted Egyptians a once-every-three-years exemption from customs and taxes when they bring a new smartphone into the country. In personal terms, it’s mildly annoying — and it’s also very smart policy, wiping out a grey market in smuggled handsets. We have the full rundown on everything you need to know, whether you’re a resident of Egypt, an Egyptian living abroad, here for a business trip, or coming in as a tourist.

Cabinet is going to get a lot of pushback on this — and while it sucks for us individually, we hope they stick to their guns.

AND- A big warning to Planet Startup and anyone else who has incorporated in the Netherlands in the last decade: A Dutch court just threw into question the big OCI Global / Orascom Construction merger. It’s a transaction that’s been widely cheered in MENA, but a Dutch judge thinks it smacks of conflict of interest — and that it might somehow inconvenience a retail shareholder who might *gasp* have to open an ADX brokerage account.

^^ We have the full rundown on these stories and more in this morning’s news well, below.

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PSA- Banks will be closed on Thursday, 29 January in observance of Police Day, the CBE announced yesterday. The public and private sectors will also be off for the day.

WEATHER- Cairo is in for dusty winds and a 20% chance of rain. Look for the mercury to rise to 22°C with an overnight low of 15°C, according to our favorite weather app.

Happening today

It’s day three of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos — and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is set to take the stage. El Sisi has landed in Switzerland and is set to give a special address to forum attendees in just a few hours. Shortly after El Sisi takes the stage US President Donald Trump will deliver his special address — which we’re waiting with equal amounts of curiosity and apprehension.

The two leaders are set to meet on the sidelines of the forum, according to an Ittihadiya statement. We expect the two sides to discuss Trump’s proposal to mediate the resolution of the Egypt-Ethiopia GERD dispute.

On day two of the forum, Investment Minister Hassan El Khatib took to Bloomberg to plug the country’s reform agenda, saying that “the numbers are telling, when you look at reserves, when you look at the remittances of Egyptians working abroad jumping from USD 18 bn last year to USD 37 bn, the reserves exceed USD 51 bn to date.” El Khatib also pointed to inflation falling from a peak of 38% to 12.3% and efforts to promote the private sector.

Additionally, the minister argued that “global trends and shifts in the supply chain [are] a positive dynamic for Egypt,” pointing to the country’s geographic position between continents, freetrade agreements, and competitiveness.

ON THE SIDELINES- El Khatib and Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk met with ACWA Power CEO Marco Arcelli, who confirmed that ACWA has bid for three upcoming mega-desalination plants to be tendered under the Public-Private Partnership model in the coming weeks.

Happening tomorrow

The search for the perfect executive: Egyptian-Swiss Business Circle and SwissCham Egypt will host a webinar on the future of talent and leadership tomorrow featuring Boyden executives from Cairo and Zurich.The discussion will touch on how organizations in the Middle East and Europe are rethinking executive pipelines to identify “tomorrow’s leaders.” The webinar will start at 10am and run until 11:30am. You can find the link to register on SwissCham Egypt’s LinkedIn.

Staying on target

Egypt wants to boost financial inclusion among adults to 80% by FY 2029-30, up from the 76.3% rate recorded in the last fiscal year, according to a document from a government document seen by EnterpriseAM.

But the targets reveal a growing discrepancy — progress for women is projected to grow at only half the speed of the general adult population. The target for women is set at 72% — coming into the system at a rate that’s about half the speed of the general population. It’s the same story for those aged 15-35, where the inclusion rate is projected to grow by 0.5 percentage points annually to 56.5% by the end of June 2030.

MNT-Halan CEO Mounir Nakhla tells us the gap is largely a paperwork problem. Women are often more intimidated by traditional bank branches, making the rollout of digital signatures an important milestone for closing the gap. In the microfinance space — where digital-first onboarding is more common — women already outpace men.

** Nakhla took the stage only yesterday at Davos to talk about Women at the Finance Frontier. You can check out the session here.

Watch this space

IPO WATCH — The EGX’s listing committee approved the temporary listing of Gourmet, according to a bulletin. Some 400 mn shares with a nominal value of EGP 0.25 will be listed on the bourse starting today, bringing the company’s issued capital to EGP 100 mn.

Look for Gourmet shares to start trading next month under the ticket GOUR.CA. The temporary listing approval is a standard box-ticking procedure as our favorite grocer marches down the road to becoming a publicly traded company.

SHIPPING — CMA CGM is signalling caution about the return to the Red Sea shipping lane, after it said it will reroute vessels on its French-Asia Line 1, French-Asia Line 2, and Mediterranean Club Express back through the Cape of Good Hope. The company cited a “complex and uncertain international context” in its statement, but did not explain the exact drivers of the decision. Its Indamex Service, though, will continue going through the Suez Canal.

Why it matters: The decision, which comes after the French shipping giant tested Red Sea transits for the three affected services in 4Q 2025. Maersk has also returned to the canal, we reported earlier this week, rerouting its MECL service connecting India and the Middle East to the US East Coast. It’s not just security concerns that the big shipping lines weigh when they debate whether to reactivate or mothball a line — demand for many lines is already saturated, and bringing back fresh capacity out-of-step with demand could push freight rates down.

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The big story abroad

Is “Sell America” back? A sharp selloff hit Wall Street last night, as US President Donald Trump stood his ground on plans to take over Greenland despite European opposition.

All three Wall Street indices fell to their lowest since October, with the S&P 500 down 2.1%. At the same time: The USD slid 0.9% against a basket of six peers, gold surged to a record high, and long-term US yields hit a four-month high.

Meanwhile, a historic rout in Japanese bonds sent yields above 4% for the first time ever on concerns over the country’s fiscal health, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called for a snap election which could hand her a mandate to pursue stimulus plans, including the removal of a food sales tax.

Adding fuel to the fire: Danish pension fund AkademikerPension said it will exit US Treasuries by the end of the month on the back of concerns that the current administration has created too many credit risks.

What to watch: Trump will be landing in Davos today, where he is set to schedule a few meetings to discuss Greenland.

ALSO- Netflix is tightening its screws in the Warner Bros takeover race: The streamer is converting its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery into an allcash offer, matching one key advantage offered by Paramount Skydance’s Gulf-backed bid, Bloomberg reports, citing a filing. Netflix had previously proposed USD 27.75 per share using a mix of banknotes and stock for Warner’s studio and streaming assets. Investors are set to vote on the transaction in April.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: We look at what startups are doing to make last mile delivery more efficient.

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