By Conrad Onyango, bird story agency

Egypt has edged out Turkey from the list of the world’s top ten largest domestic logistics markets, a new Index shows.

A vibrant and fast-growing start-up ecosystem, aggressive investment in port modernisation and the development of industrial parks are listed among the key "pull" factors for investors in the North African country.

Agility’s 50-country Emerging Markets Logistics Index 2023 shows Egypt has moved up five places to enter the top ten in the index's global list showing domestic logistics opportunities.

“The biggest mover in the top ten was Egypt which climbed five places to number nine, displacing Turkey,” said the index's authors. 

The index ranks countries for overall competitiveness based on their logistics strengths, business climates and digital readiness.

It described Egypt as ‘one of Africa’s success stories’  over the past decade, outperforming most markets in both Africa and the Middle East, including during a period that COVID-19 upended the global economy. 

“The country now accounts for over a fifth of the continent’s manufacturing value-add and the government’s business-friendly approach has been particularly successful at attracting international investors, not least in the high-tech sector,” said the report.

In August 2022, Egypt’s minister of transport, Kamel El-Wazir, announced that the country had lined up 80 logistics projects valued at US$6.6 billion, with plans to amend transport sector laws to attract more private sector investment.

Key projects include the development of container terminals, cruise berths, marine passenger terminals, multimodal transport, river ports and managing terminals in Safaga, Said and Damietta ports.

“This (port investments) will not only aid the throughput of container traffic but is also designed to turn the country into an energy hub, including Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminals,” said the Agility Logistics Index analysts.

Disrupt Africa’s Tech Startups Funding Report 2022 also highlights Egypt’s meteoric rise as a top investment destination, buoyed by the rising number of mega deals raised from global venture capital organisations.

The report shows the amount raised by Egyptian startups was the second-highest in Africa and that the country had the second-highest number (131) of funded startups in 2022. Nigeria came first in both 

Egypt’s 2022 startup fundraising value was over 80% higher than 2021 figures, and the country accounted for 24 % of the continent’s total funds raised last year.  

“These numbers continue Egypt’s recent stellar performance, which began in earnest in 2019 when it recorded the highest number of funded startups, alongside a jump in funding as compared to its own previous figures

Funded fintech startups (26) accounted for almost 20% of Egypt’s funded startups, surpassing the country’s long-dominant E-commerce and retail-tech sectors.  

However, in the logistics sector, Egypt had ten startups that raised 7% of the total funds raised by the country.

Morocco, with an overall global rank of position 20, is Africa’s top emerging logistics market, with Egypt (21), South Africa (24), Kenya (25) and Ghana (29) rounding out Africa’s top five slots.

Morocco emerged as the best African country to do business in, scoring the highest in the business fundamentals metric, which measures how easy it is to do business in a particular market from a regulatory, operational and commercial perspective. 

The country also scored the highest ranking in Africa in the International Logistics Opportunities category.

Kenya, which has taken steps to nurture digital startups, was Africa’s most digitally ready economy, at position 12 globally.

The Index, which included a separate survey of 750 global logistics executives, found that industry professionals expected to see big benefits from the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

They identified the biggest benefits as reduced red tape for trade, lower business costs, production of higher-value products in Africa and job creation, especially for women. 

**bird story agency **