Egyptians walk past an exchange office in Cairo, Egypt, March 6, 2024. AP
At Al-Ahly Exchange, owned by the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), customers have sold foreign currency worth over EGP4.2 billion until Thursday, stated Abdel-Maguid Mohieldin, the company's chairperson.
Most of the transactions involved the sales of USD, followed by the Saudi riyal, then the Emirati dirham, and then the euro, Mohieldin added.
Banque Misr's Misr Exchange company collected EGP3 billion in foreign currency from customers across 71 branches nationwide, said Adel Fawzi, the company's chairman.
The majority of transactions were dollars and euros sales, he noted.
Mohamed Ragaei, chairman of Cairo Exchange, owned by Banque du Caire, stated that the foreign currency proceeds have reached EGP 355 million through its 12 branches since the devaluation.
The company leaders attributed the increase in customer turnout for exchanging foreign and Arab currencies to the existence of a unified and reasonable exchange rate.
They pointed out that the unification of the exchange rate has helped stabilize the currency exchange market and eliminate the black market.
On 6 March, Egypt floated its local currency to narrow the gap between the official and parallel exchange rates after a year of substantial disparity that caused a steep foreign currency crunch.
Subsequently, the value of the Egyptian pound dropped to around 47.5 per dollar from nearly EGP31— which had been maintained over the past year.
Egypt has secured significant foreign currency inflows in recent weeks as part of its efforts to address the foreign currency crisis, which caused high inflation.
The recent inflows included the $35 billion Ras El-Hekma deal with the UAE, the largest foreign direct investment in Egypt's history, and a host of grants and loans from international institutions.
In mid-March, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said remittances from Egyptian expatriates are gradually returning to normal rates due to the recent economic measures.
Short link: