The division said traders have already received notifications of the price hikes from manufacturers, including Oppo and Honor, with other brands expected to follow.
The increases come as Egypt’s mobile phone market is experiencing a sharp slowdown, the division said in a statement reported by Al-Shorouk news.
Mohamed El-Haddad, head of the Mobile Phone Traders Division, criticized the price rises as exploitative, particularly after the government recently ended an exemption that had allowed Egyptians working abroad to bring mobile phones into the country duty-free.
“These companies are exploiting market conditions while receiving substantial government incentives to support local manufacturing,” El-Haddad said, questioning the price gap between locally produced and imported devices.
El-Haddad urged the government to remove smartphones from the luxury goods category, a move he said would reduce customs duties and help stabilize prices.
He noted that with Egypt’s education system increasingly reliant on mobile devices, smartphones should be treated as strategic necessities rather than luxury items.
He also called on the Competition Protection Authority and the Consumer Protection Agency to coordinate with chambers of commerce to monitor pricing policies and ensure fair competition.
The decision to end the customs exemption for mobile phones brought in by Egyptian travellers took effect last week and is intended to support 15 international brands operating in Egypt, with a combined production capacity of 20 million devices annually.
Major brands, including Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo and Nokia, have established manufacturing facilities in Egypt under the government’s “Egypt Makes Electronics” initiative.
Egypt produced around 10 million mobile phones in 2025 and is targeting output of 15 million units in 2026.
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