Vodafone Egypt has secured a contract valued at 2.3-billion Egyptian pounds to develop a digital platform to support the country's new primary healthcare system.

The new system is understood to be based on the UK's NHS and Vodafone Egypt will leverage support from the UK Department of International Trade.

Liam Fox, Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade said, ""That's why we've stood by Vodafone as it sought and secured this contract which, as part of the Egyptian government's reforms, will help revolutionise healthcare for people here - it is the beginning of an Egyptian NHS for the Egyptian people."

Vodafone will also work with DXC Technology, which already provides IT infrastructure services across the NHS supply chain, to develop the digital platform.

The platform will be piloted in Port Said before being introduced in four other governorates, then across Egypt.

Vodafone has 40 million subscribers in Egypt.

The company was recently issued a fine of €528,000 by the country's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NITRA) for interruption of telecoms services on the network for several hours across different areas.

Vodafone Egypt attempted to compensate subscribers with minutes and provided additional megabytes for the interruption, but it was not enough to avoid the regulator's sanction.

"The decision to fine was in accordance with the articles of the license granted to the company by the Egyptian authorities," NITRA stated.