Egypt has 6M unlicensed shops, 1.1K slum markets: officials

CAIRO – 25 December 2022: Chairman of the Urban Development Fund Khaled Sediq told Al Watan newspaper Sunday that 3,033 shops had been built as part of the implementation of a national plan aimed at substituting slum markets with formal ones.

The construction of 3,171 others is currently underway, as the fund is set to establish 306,313 shops distributed across 1,105 markets. The total budget is estimated to be LE44 billion.

According to the map prepared by the fund, slum markets are located in Luxor, Cairo, Sharqia, Qalyoubiyah, Menya, Red Sea, Port Said, Damietta, and New Valley.

As for unlicensed shops, Head of the Internal Trade Sector at the Ministry of Supply Abdel Moneim Khalil stated in a phone-in that their number amounts to six million, which is equivalent to the number of licensed ones.