Egyptian army donates 1bn Egyptian pounds to help economy

According to the official Middle East News Agency in Egypt, the army has donated one billion Egyptian pounds to a fund that was initiated by President Abel Fatah Al-Sisi to help the country’s ailing economy.

Reuters said Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi allocated one billion Egyptian pounds ($140 million) from the army’s National Service Projects Authority’s budget to Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt). It also added that this comes as a result of “the armed forces’ belief in the inevitability of the collective efforts of all the Egyptian people and the state bodies to overcome the current circumstances experienced by the country”.

The Central Bank of Egypt announced, on Wednesday, the opening of an account named Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt) “for receiving donations to support the economy”, one day after Al-Sisi’s speech, at the graduation ceremony of the military academy in Cairo, in which he said that the country’s budget is facing a large deficit.

Al-Sisi said that the revival of economy demands sacrifices by all Egyptians, calling for the establishment of a donation fund under his administration. The army’s donation of billion pounds came at a time of ambiguity about the military’s funds which the former Minister of Defence Al- Sisi claimed only own two per cent of the country’s financial assets and not 60 per cent as reported by the media.