As Egypt’s Population Hits 100 Million, Poverty problem glows

As Egypt’s Population Hits 100 Million, Celebration Is Muted

NYTimes Feb. 11th, 2020

With little habitable land, deepening poverty and dwindling supplies of water, the future looks bleak. And there is no sign of a slowdown.

CAIRO — Somewhere in Egypt, around lunchtime Tuesday, the country reached a major milestone: its 100 millionth citizen was born.

The birth of that citizen — whom officials identified as a girl named Yasmine Rabie, in a village in Minya governorate — was noted in Cairo by a giant counter outside the country’s national statistics agency that has been ticking upward for years.

Hitting 100,000,000 marked human plenty, certainly, but also an uneasy moment in a country gripped by worries that its exploding population will exacerbate poverty and unemployment, and contribute to the scarcity of basic resources like land and water.

Wealth Distribution and Income Inequality by Country 2018

gfmag

Egypt has all the indexes on the worst side, a big gap between rich & poor, high poverty rate, high unemployment rate, and low income.

Poverty in Egypt: How the turbulence of the Arab Spring revolution has led the country to economic ruin

Independent March 2018

Life is a lot more difficult than it used to be.

Massive inflation and a sharp drop in tourism since the 2011 revolution have ushered in a period of austerity in Egypt.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut the subsidies for food and fuel that many Egyptians depend on.

The increase of prices across the country has meant that Egyptians who were once just about getting by are now slipping deeper into poverty. The price of almost everything has increased, surpassing people’s income.

How to Resolve this problem

People in Egypt should rely less upon IMF or other funding and spend more energy to create opportunities for themselves such as Community Crowdfunding for their development funding.

A lot of suggestions that increased community participation is the ultimate way to reduce poverty.

Community Crowdfunding

If the funding can be coming from cashback from merchants such as people eating out every day, buying out every day.

The mathematics:

As an example, GDP per capita for Egypt is about US$ 2,724 per year https://data.worldbank.org
Assumed retail merchant networks can cover all walks of life in Egypt.
5% cashback will equate to 5% x US$2,724 =US$136 per year
Egypt has a population of 100 million. If all participate, it will generate cashback close to US$ 13.6 B annually.

This US$ 13.6 B can be used as development fund such as: