Cairo's kiosks get a uniform 🏪

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• MBS comes to Cairo as the Houthis strike 🇸🇦

• The discount list grows from 12 goods to 30 🛒

• Cairo’s kiosks get a uniform 🏪

SAUDI ARABIA | RED SEA | SECURITY
MBS COMES TO CAIRO AS THE HOUTHIS STRIKE SAUDI ARABIA

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi hosted Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman in Cairo on Tuesday, 15 September, the same day Houthi missiles and drones struck King Khalid Airbase in Khamis Mushait and injured 13 civilians. Cairo condemned the attack within hours, saying the national security of the two countries is “interconnected and indivisible.”

What came out of it: Both leaders called for secure navigation through the Bab al-Mandeb and the Red Sea and agreed on closer coordination to protect shipping lanes. The Egyptian presidency went a step further, describing the security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf as an integral part of Egypt’s own. They also backed the two-state solution and the Gaza peace plan, and agreed to expand trade, which reached about USD 7.1 billion in the first half of the year, up 20 percent.

Why Riyadh needed the trip: Houthi strikes have now reached four southern Saudi cities, Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran. Separate drone attacks launched from Iraq led Saudi Arabia to shut its East-West pipeline as a precaution, the line that carries crude from Abqaiq to Yanbu on the Red Sea so it can avoid the Strait of Hormuz. With Hormuz closed, the Red Sea is Saudi Arabia’s way out, and it is under fire.

Egypt’s stake is the canal: The Suez Canal lost roughly USD 7 billion across 2023 and 2024, around 60 percent of its normal revenue, as ships avoided the Red Sea. In August, the Egyptian-owned cargo ship Tihamah was hit in the Bab al-Mandeb and six people died. Cairo does not need persuading that the strait matters.

The part nobody answered: How far Egypt is prepared to go. So far it has stayed out of direct military action against the Houthis, and the memory of the 1960s, when tens of thousands of Egyptian troops fought in Yemen’s civil war at heavy cost, still shapes that caution. “Yemen taught Egypt that an apparently limited intervention can become a strategic trap very quickly,” one analyst told Al Jazeera.

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PRICE | INFLATION | CONSUMERS
THE GOVERNMENT’S DISCOUNT LIST GROWS FROM 12 TO 30 GOODS

Egypt’s six-month price-reduction initiative will expand from 12 essential goods to 30, according to a government statement after Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly’s Governors’ Council meeting on Monday, 14 September. The extra 18 items are due to be added before the end of the month.

How it works: The scheme launched on 10 September and sells the discounted goods through around 284 outlets, including consumer complexes, the state-backed Gamayati grocery stores and ration supply agents. Several large retail chains have also signed up. It runs to March 2027, which means it covers Ramadan, when food prices climb every year.

Plus some enforcement: Madbouly told governors to step up market inspections and make shops display prices where customers can see them. He also wants at least one permanent market in every governorate, with seasonal markets added at peak periods.

Where the pressure actually is: Urban inflation eased to 14.5 percent in August from 14.9 percent in July, below the 15.5 percent analysts expected. Food inflation fell to 6.3 percent. Housing and utilities, the category that includes electricity bills, ran at 42.8 percent after August’s tariff rise. So the discount targets the part of the household budget that is currently rising slowest, with Ramadan in mind, while the fastest-rising costs sit elsewhere.

Still to come: Neither the government statement nor the coverage so far lists the 12 goods or says how deep the discounts go. Those two details will decide whether this is felt at the till.

CAIRO | SMALL BUSINESS | STREETS
CAIRO’S KIOSKS GET A MAKEOVER

Cairo Governor Ibrahim Saber unveiled a standard design for the capital’s licensed kiosks on Thursday, 17 September, inspecting the prototype in Bab Al-Louq, and gave owners three months to replace what they have now. Cairo has 2,739 kiosks and 1,790 display stands, according to the governorate.

What the new kiosk looks like: Two fixed sizes, 2×3 or 3×3 metres, with built-in space for the fridge and the shelves so that goods stay inside rather than spreading across the pavement. Each one carries the governorate logo, its name, its licence number and a QR code that shows the holder, the location, whether the licence is valid and any fees owed. A fire extinguisher and a separate electricity meter come as standard, and the governorate is considering a uniform for the vendors too.

Who pays: The owners. They can build the new unit themselves and get 20 percent off their usufruct fee for a year, or have it made in the workshops of the Cairo Cleaning and Beautification Authority, paying 25 percent upfront and the rest in interest-free instalments over two years.

And if they do not: Kiosks that keep their old design will not have their licences renewed. Those that spill past their footprint onto the street could lose them altogether.

Goodbye to Cairo’s iconic kiosks?