Culture Snippets: Egypt

‘Culture snippets’ is our way of sharing snippets of insights into different countries. If you want to chat about how you can use these insights to inform your product and business decisions, feel free to get in touch.

#culturesnippets #Eqypt Has a fast-growing population with a high percentage of young people. The political changes and unfortunate economical decisions that stroke Egypt since the 2011 revolution resulted in a massive drop for their currency value. Egypt has traditionally been a price-driven market. After the devaluation, people became more price-sensitive and value-for-money-oriented.

Patronage, kinship and the family unit are central to Egyptian society. Family defines social status and determines values and behaviour. 

The concept of fatalism, closely linked to Islam, is strong - destiny is believed to be in the hands of God. Instead of saying no or voice lack of interest in a request, it’s often replaced by a non-committed answer like “God willing” (Inshallah) or “tomorrow” (Bokra).

Most Egyptians own more than one phone or sim card: Cheaper for calls with the same network, better signal coverage in certain areas and various offers by different networks. The second phone often is a feature phone. The low price points make them appealing to locals with shrinking disposable incomes.

Egypt has a low banking penetration rate. The culture favours and trusts cash payments. Efforts are made to shift towards digitisation: The March 2019 E-Payments Act, banks offering its own eWallet, e-payment services like Fawry enables payment via phones, and telcos expanding fibre optics network in whole Egypt to provide average Internet speed for a better e-payment system infrastructure. With Egyptians don’t tend to break traditions and habits, it might take a longer period to move on from cash payments.

Photos: Taken when we were on the ground helping our clients to understand more about their customers and markets in this country.