Investment Minister Mohamed Farid taps four new assistant ministers

Investment Minister Mohamed Farid has named four new assistant ministers drawn from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), the EGX, and the State Council — a team weighted heavily toward regulatory drafting and digital infrastructure rather than promotion, the ministry said this week.

The line-up is as follows:

#1- Sherif Yehia (LinkedIn) — assistant minister for development anddigital transformation. A 22-year IT and cybersecurity veteran, most recently advisor to Farid and before that the FRA's senior IT official. He will be tasked with rebuilding the ministry's digital architecture, streamline investor services, and bring AI into daily operations.

#2- Said Arafa (LinkedIn) — assistant minister for investment contracts. Twenty-five years drafting economic legislation, including tenures as counsel on regulatory matters to the Public Enterprises Ministry and the EGX after a long run at the FRA. He will now tighten investment contracts and renew complex public-private partnership agreements.

#3- Ali Azab — assistant minister for legislative affairs. Fifteen years at the State Council, specializing in economic and investment disputes and public contracts. Azab will now overhaul existing investment laws and draft new ones.

#4- Mohamed Ayyad (LinkedIn) — assistant minister for promotion andmedia communication. Five years advising the FRA chairman, four before that as deputy assistant chairman at the EGX, and 18 years across capital markets and financial journalism. He will run the pitch to global investors.

What’s the signal? Three of the four come out of the FRA or the EGX, and two are lawyers. It looks like Minister Farid is shifting focus from the story we tell investors to the contracts they have to sign, the laws that sit beneath, and the digital infrastructure that gets them from interest to closing. The first test will be the state’s IPO program, which aims to list at least four state-owned companies by December.