Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said has approved EGP 50m in funds that will go towards launching the Digital Egypt Builders initiative.
The funds, which have been approved in implementation of the Egyptian political leadership’s directives, will be given to the Ministry of Communications and Information and Technology from the fiscal year (FY) 2020/21 plan.
El-Said said that the state attaches utmost importance to strengthening the communications and information technology sector as part of the trend towards digital transformation and the increased investments in this field.
The minister also said that the volume of investments directed to the telecommunications sector in the FY 2020/21 plan amounts to EGP 10bn, an increase of 300%.
El-Said emphasised that her ministry seeks to support those initiatives that mainly aim to build the capabilities and enhance the competencies of the Egyptian people. This forms one of the main goals to bring about a comprehensive and real sustainable development in support of the goals of Egypt’s Vision 2030.
It also helps direct initiatives towards promoting the idea of digital transformation that the state seeks to achieve to build a digital Egypt.
El-Said said that the Egyptian Digital Builders initiative was launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and announced during President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s opening of some educational facilities in September 2020.
The initiative falls under the “Building the Egyptian People” project, and aims to empower the next generation of Egyptian graduates.
El-Said said that the initiative is a free grant offered every year to 1,000 outstanding students from Faculties of Engineering, and Departments of Computing, Electronics, Communications, or Medicine, and Colleges of Sports Sciences.
A monitoring system will be put in place at the end of the scholarship period and the students’ completion of the graduation projects.
After obtaining all the aforementioned certificates, the graduates are qualified at the highest level to work in digital transformation projects, and support building a digital Egypt. They will also be able to work with major Egyptian and international technology companies, and in the field of research and development in the information and communication technology sector.
Students will be selected according to specific conditions and criteria for admission to begin preparing them as employees in several fields, including: data science; artificial intelligence (AI); cyber security; robotics and automation; and digital arts.
They will be enrolled in a leadership and management skills development training programme to prepare qualified leaders to serve in the bodies responsible for transforming Egypt into a first-class digital country.
This will be under taken by using the latest technologies in the learning process and through the presence of students on an advanced campus that keeps pace with its capabilities with the latest smart universities.
The initiative is implemented in cooperation with several international universities specialised in technical fields, and international companies working in the fields of information and communication technology or the development of leadership or linguistic skills, as these international universities award a master’s degree.
