President Sisi to Egyptians: No worries about basic commodities amid economic crisis

CAIRO – 19 August 2023:  During his inspection tour of the Egyptian Military Academy on Saturday, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi assured citizens that they should not be worried about the basic commodities and fuel needed electricity and cars.

“No worries about the basic commodities and fuel need for 10 million cars daily. The state is seeking to reduce the importations of basic needs like commodities, fuel, and pharmaceutical substances via providing local alternatives,” he said in a speech after the inspection tour.

The President added that Egypt suffers from the economic crisis, saying “we are not the cause of it.” He attributed the reasons of the crisis to the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine and Russian war.

On the electricity outage crisis, President Sisi said that Egypt needs 18,000 tons of diesel per day to operate the electricity stations at full capacity amid high temperatures and more than 0.5 million ton of diesel per month, at about $ 300-350 million. 

President also revealed that Egypt’s arable land will increased by additional 3 million feddans soon.  (One Feddan is equal to 1.03 Acres). Egypt’s current arable land is 9.4 million feddans according to data of the Ministry of Agriculture in 2022.

President Sisi: Egypt has always sought to be a positive factor. He gave an example of Egypt’s role in the Sudanese crisis and the holding of a conference of neighboring countries to end the suffering of Sudanese people.

On August 10, 2023, President Sisi has followed up on state’s efforts to avoid the recurrence of the power cuts crisis in the future and put different scenarios to deal with the various probabilities in this regard. This was during a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker and Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla, Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Ahmed Fahmi said in a statement.

Over the past month, the government has adopted load-shedding policies amid the heatwave that swept the country, causing power consumption to exceed the natural gas available to fuel the stations.

As per the load-shedding program in effect, almost all areas nationwide witness power cuts for up to two hours per day at specific times.