Etisalat Egypt has signed a US$132.4-million funding agreement with the Commercial International Bank (CIB) to support its expansion in the North African country.

The operator said the investment also supports the Digital Egypt Project, a state-driven digital transformation initiative part of Egypt’s Vision 2030 agenda for inclusive development.

Etisalat Egypt CEO Hazem Metwally said, “Etisalat Egypt is keen on investing in infrastructure that provides the best integrated technology services to our customers and keeps pace with a huge increase in data usage rate across Egypt.”

CIB’s CEO of Institutional Banking Amr El Ganainy said, “This partnership reflects CIB’s role in supporting businesses in the ICT sector and will further contribute to achieving Etisalat Egypt’s strategy in a way that scales up the company’s financial position in the market and thus achieve more future business success.”

Competition has increased in Egypt’s telecommunications industry over the past few years with operators investing heavily to reinforce their market position amid the growing demand for broadband, for example.

In March 2022 Telecom Egypt secured a loan of US$167-million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to expand its 4G network and extend its reach to underserved regions.

In the same year, Orange Egypt also announced it had secured additional spectrum from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) for 4G and 5G networks.

Vodafone Egypt has 43% market share and 45 million subscribers, followed by Orange Egypt and then Telecom Egypt.