Worthy investments

Worthy investments

Minister of Education Tarek Shawki issued a ministerial decree on 20 January allowing unlimited foreign ownership of international and private schools in Egypt. According to the decree, schools must be owned by a company registered in Egypt.

The company, however, could be owned by other companies, funds or individuals of any nationality.

The minister was amending a previous ministerial decree that was issued in 2019.

Over the past decade, Egypt has been witnessing a steady increase in private equity funds and investors interested in education. This was the case until the November 2019 ministerial decree was issued thus bringing the unprecedented, speedy increase of private sector investments in the education industry to a halt. The 2019 decree limited the ownership of foreigners in the capital of private schools, and schools applying an international curriculum in Egypt, to 20 per cent. 

According to Reda Hegazi, deputy to the Ministry of Education, private sector investments are essential to the educational process.

"Egypt needs LE130 billion to establish new schools, while the budget allocated for this purpose does not exceed 10 per cent of the country's education budget, which amounts to LE158 billion.

Some 94 per cent of the total is spent on