Our investment fund industry has become a EGP 411 bn parallel route for household savings by the end of 1Q 2026, up 30% in a single quarter and increasingly used by retail investors who previously parked money in physical gold, real estate units, or bank deposits. The shift isn’t replacing the deposit base — fund total Net Asset Value (NAV) sits at roughly 3% of bank deposit levels — but rather opening a regulated, lower-ticket channel for households to gain exposure to the very asset classes they’ve long preferred, the Financial Regulatory Authority's latest report (pdf) shows. The number of funds rose to 187 from 172, while the number of certificates jumped 54.7% q-o-q to 31.4 bn.

This is Egypt’s old savings playbook in a lower-ticket wrapper. Households that have long used physical gold and real estate units to preserve value are now being offered regulated products that mimic that exposure without the same entry ticket. “Funds have become very accessible from everywhere. It is a sign of rising investor awareness, wider use of fintech, and a much higher level of trust in the investment fund product,” Azimut Egypt Managing Director Ahmed Abou El Saad tells EnterpriseAM. Macro analyst Rania Yacoub agrees that this is a retail access story, telling us that “this clearly showed up in the rise in the number of coded investors on the EGX,” which climbed by 215% y-o-y during the first quarter of the year, according to FRA Head Islam Azzam. The NBFI sector “was able to attract investors — and not only investors who used to invest through banks, but new segments of citizens,” Yacoub tells us.

Behind the bns

The scale check still favours the banks. Fund NAV at EGP 411 bn sits against bank deposits at roughly EGP 13-14 tn before end-2025, macro expert Moustafa Badra tells EnterpriseAM — funds are now a parallel channel, not a substitute. “Let's separate the two, because this has its customer and that has its customer,” Badra says. “Despite the major expansion in funds and their ability to attract large investments and money, the entrenched base for many investors is still certificates and bank deposits.” Abou El Saad makes the same point: CDs still work for savers who depend on fixed income to meet living expenses, while funds give more flexible investors a different tool. “[CDs] have their people, but for people for whom certificates were not the right product, funds created another option,” he tells us.

Money is not waiting to rotate — it has a job. Money market funds dominate the industry, holding EGP 276.3 bn in NAV at end-March (67% of the market) and accounting for 54.1% of all fund certificates. They delivered an average 4.44% return in 1Q, with the best-performing money market funds coming in above that average: Iskan Ins.’s Kol Youm returned 6.37% in 1Q after delivering 24.7% in 2025, while Basata Cash returned 5.22% and Wethaq 5.20%. That concentration isn't a warning sign. “Most citizens investing in money market funds are doing it because they want to preserve the value of their money, earn the highest possible return, and still be able to withdraw that liquidity at any time to face daily needs,” Jacoub says. Abou El Saad is more direct: “If you look at the structure of investment funds in any country in the world, you will find it very close to these numbers. Money market funds usually make up 60-80% of any fund market globally.”

The smaller-ticket safe haven

Precious metals funds were the quarter’s clear performance winner, delivering an average 20.37% return in 1Q. Their NAV nearly doubled to EGP 10.1 bn from EGP 5.2 bn at the end of 2025, but they still account for just 2.5% of total fund NAV — making this a fast-growing corner of the market but not the center of gravity. The top performers came in slightly above the category average: Beltone Evolve’s Sabaek returned some 21.7% in 1Q after delivering 52.4% in 2025, while Al Ahly Evolve’s Dahab returned 21.41% after 50.4% annual gains in 2025.

The structural reason gold funds work: physical gold has become expensive at the entry point. Al Mal reports that making charges (masna’ya) average EGP 350-400 per gram for local jewelry and EGP 800-1k per gram for imported pieces — while the official tax-accounting averages for gold workmanship will also rise 10% from July. “Most investors in these funds are more nimble investors who do not have large liquidity pools, so precious metals funds gave them what they were looking for: the ability to invest small amounts periodically,” Yacoub tells us. Abou El Saad cautions that the structure shouldn't be confused for a trading vehicle: “People understand that gold is a long-term thing, not something you trade. 1Q saw a very strong inflationary surge, and that cooled in 2Q with the decline in gold prices. It has cooled, but people are still net buyers in 2Q — just at a much lower rate.”

Equities are growing, but cash still sets the market’s shape. Equity funds are the largest category by number of funds, with 62 funds at the end of March and the second-largest by NAV at EGP 56.4 bn — around 13.7% of the market. Equity funds NAV grew 29.3% q-o-q, broadly in line with the industry’s headline growth, while average 1Q returns came in at 4.18%. Index funds performed better, returning 7.54%, but remain tiny at just EGP 243.7 mn in NAV.

That does not mean the EGX rally is failing to show up in funds. “A year ago, we were talking about all equity funds being around EGP 10-11 bn — look at where we are now,” Abou El Saad tells us. “The biggest reflection of that growth came from the FRA’s new rules requiring private ins. funds and ins. companies to hold minimum investments in equity funds.” Yacoub says the return picture also depends on timing and benchmarks, noting that “the real jump in the EGX30 happened in the final quarter of the year, and that was reflected in equity funds,” while some index and shariah-compliant products saw stronger moves tied to their underlying stocks.

The next test

Real estate wants the gold-fund playbook. Real estate funds posted the sharpest NAV jump in the report, rising to EGP 8.98 bn from EGP 923.7 mn at the end of 2025. But this is still early-stage: real estate funds account for just 2.2% of total fund NAV and 0.32% of all fund certificates, with the jump driven largely by one large new vehicle rather than a broad retail breakout. “Real estate funds will represent a good opportunity to organize Egypt’s real estate sector and its pricing,” Yacoub tells us. “Once this product gets its chance in marketing, it will attract a very large segment of investors, like what happened with gold.”

The next test is fractional property. Abou El Saad says the next wave is about turning real estate into a smaller-ticket investment product. “The funds we are going to launch are the ones that let people invest in real estate with EGP 5k — this is where the fractional real estate idea comes in,” he tells us. Platforms including Partment and Nawy Shares’ FRA-regulated fractional ownership model are already moving in that direction. “If we succeed in real estate, real estate will be the king of the coming period,” Abou El Saad says.

Real estate is where the regulatory framework matters most. The asset class has historically been the one most susceptible to informal arrangements, valuation disputes, and the dual-pricing problem that’s now visible in industrial land. Badra makes the regulatory point explicitly: “As long as there is a regulatory framework — investment funds, regulated investment companies, regulated finance companies — that gives society confidence. For me, as long as this is under the state's umbrella, under the state’s eyes, and under regulatory oversight, it is reassuring.” Whether the access thesis extends to assets above the gold-fund ticket size — and whether the FRA’s regulatory wrapper holds up to the test — will be clearer in the next four to six quarters.