Egypt is building smart cities for a digital future

Huge capital investment is changing the face of modern Egypt, but is this growth being reflected in its AV sector? Paul Milligan speaks to those on the ground.
It has been anything but dull in the last five years in Egypt. Internal and external investment has surged, which has seen a slew of huge infrastructure projects get the go-ahead, including the construction of a whole new city. Egypt’s economic outlook is on an upward trajectory, with a predicted GDP growth of 4.7% in 2025-2026, surpassing the IMF’s previous forecast of 4.1%.

Running in tandem with this growth is a dual devaluation of its currency in the last three years, the last time in 2024 when the IMF intervened. While the country’s financial fortunes have been fluctuating, it has become politically stable, and you can’t say that of many of its neighbors, with wars in recent times in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Libya and the ongoing conflict in Gaza, to name a few. So where does this leave the country’s AV sector? We spoke to a selection of system integrators, event companies, and distributors to find out.

According to recent figures, Egypt has the second-biggest economy in Africa, behind South Africa, but is that reflected in the size of its AV market? In 2025 so far and in the latter half of 2024, the answer would be no, says Hisham Allam, CEO and founder of systems integrator Egyptian Micro Solutions (EMS), with Allam highlighting the economic crisis and the new regulations from the IMF as a major reason why.