Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait has revealed that urgent finance worth EGP 7.1bn has been supplied to a range of public companies and entities during September.
The beneficiaries of the urgent finance include: the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC); the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving; and the National Media Authority. It also financed subsidies for student subscriptions to the Cairo Metro, the home delivery of natural gas, medicines, and infant formula.
Maait said that these urgent disbursements were made to enable these entities to fulfil their commodity and service obligations towards citizens. It would also ensure that receive financial aid goes to relieve Egypt’s burdens, particularly among low-income citizens, as part of the government’s efforts to provide basic goods and support transportation.
Of the total amount, EGP 4bn was allocated to GASC, representing the value of the monthly financial subsidies for ration card commodities. A further EGP 1.4bn was provided to the General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport. This will go towards ensuring the authority pays compensation towards the expropriation of land that took place under some projects to raise the efficiency of roads.
An EGP 21.4m allocation was provided to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, to pay the costs of air cargo flights for medicines and medical supplies to 20 countries across Africa. The flights were part of Egypt’s pledge to the African Union Fund, to confront the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Other allocations include EGP 150m to support the Passenger Transport Authority (PTA), and EGP 372.9m to support the delivery of natural gas to homes. These come in addition to EGP 4.7m provided to the Cairo Metro to support student subscriptions, and EGP 220m to the National Media Authority to fulfil its financial obligations towards employees.
