Egypt’s information and communication technology (ICT) continues to see massive growth, maintaining its position as Egypt’s highest growing sector for the last 2 years, with expectations to reach a growth rate of 16 percent during the current fiscal year.

With increased internet speed and digital exports going up to $4.1 billion, the ICT sector has contributed to around 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP, states a report by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.

These have been significant developments in sector over the past seven years, coming forth as a result of the support given by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as the state works towards building a digital Egypt.

According to the report, there are 60 digitized government services were launched on the ‘Digital Egypt’ platform, as part of a project implemented with investments of EGP 3 billion.

The project aims to digitize government services, and make them available through multiple outlets suitable for all citizens.

These outlets include the Digital Egypt platform, post offices, government service centers, and the 15999 call center.

The first phase of the communications infrastructure development project was implemented across Egypt in 2019 with investments amounting to $30 billion.

Implemented in the second half (H2) of 2020, the second phases included effort in increasing the internet speed in Egypt since January 2019, leading to a cost of EGP 5.5 billion during FY 2020/21.

The average fixed internet speeds in Egypt rose to 39.6 Mbit/s in April 2021, compared to 6.5 Mbit/s in January 2019. Telecom Egypt (TE) has also won the title for the fastest internet provider in North Africa, according to the report.

Furthermore, an ambitious plan was implemented to reformulate the role of Egypt Post, making them outlets that provide vital services to citizens and creating a qualitative leap in terms of form and content. 

Egypt Post has also become an outlet for ‘Digital Egypt’ services, as well as financial inclusion services. It also works as an intermediary between customers and companies, including consumer microfinance, microfinance, and micro-insurance. 

Many of the branches of Egypt Post were also expanded and provided with modern-technology devices. Egypt Post mobile booths can move around during rush hours at post offices, especially pension payment time.