Eissa outlines privatization roadmap, rates investment climate 4/10

Egypt's investment climate sits at around four out of 10, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Hussein Eissa said during an AmCham Egypt panel discussion attended by EnterpriseAM yesterday. He acknowledged that despite strong long-term potential, the country has meaningful ground to cover. “Investment needs confidence, needs competition, needs clarity,” he said. “We have some sort of confidence, some sort of clarity, some sort of competition, but it’s not enough.”

The divestment pipeline is now 10 state asset sales targeted for completion by end-2026, Eissa said, with Banque du Caire and at least two military-affiliated companies he did not name on the list. The IMF’s seventh review is centered on delayed divestments, reduced public spending, and an updated state ownership policy document, which Eissa said the government plans to release by end-June. An executive program detailing which sectors and companies go next and on what timetable will follow.

Meanwhile, the debt situation is a “tragedy,” Eissa said, with debt servicing currently consuming around 60% of the state budget. He emphasized that “one of the most important reasons we have debt is to establish projects, so it is crucial to run these projects efficiently to pay the debt back.”

Egypt could begin pilot shifting some commodity subsidies into direct money transfers before year-end, Eissa said — a reform the IMF has pushed for years, and one the government has so far resisted at scale. Updated poverty and household expenditure figures, on which the money-transfer model would depend, are expected by October 2026.

No further energy price hike is expected in 2026, Eissa said, though he stopped short of ruling one out. The signal comes weeks after tariff adjustments for commercial, industrial, and transit users.

Why it matters: Eissa’s four-out-of-10 line will make headlines, but what lies beneath it is what to look out for next. The ownership policy update due at the end of June is our next IMF benchmark, and the money-transfer pilot scheme — if it materializes by year-end — could be one of the most consequential reforms of our government’s current term.