Slums in Egypt (File Photo: Al Ahram)
The Egyptian cabinet dismissed on Tuesday news reports that installment prices for government-provided housing would increase after a recent price hike in construction material due to the pound flotation.
The statement affirmed that the government would cover any potential increase in construction expenses due to the recent price hike.
In 2015, the government announced a plan to build 1 million homes for the poor at a cost of almost $20 billion over the next five years in an effort to combat the proliferation of slums and unlicensed buildings.
Egypt's Ministry of Housing announced in October that 500,000 housing units have been completed, with another 400,000 planned to be finished by April 2017.
A report published in June by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) stated that 38.8 percent of Egypt's cities include slums, with 351 unsafe areas across the country.
More than 16 million Egyptians live in slums, most of which are based in the Greater Cairo metropolitan area, according to a 2016 report by the Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights (ESCR).
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