Amazon puts its decade of Egypt investment at EGP 29 billion in GDP

Amazon said its investments in Egypt have added more than EGP 29 billion to the country's gross domestic product over the past decade, a figure drawn from an economic impact assessment carried out by the consultancy Keystone Strategy.

The company put the number of jobs its Egyptian activity has supported over the same period at more than 60,000, a count that includes direct, indirect and induced employment as well as seasonal roles. Those positions run across logistics, technology, operations and professional services.

Keystone attributed the GDP contribution to Amazon's cumulative spending on infrastructure, technology, logistics and employee compensation. The ten-year window it measured stretches back before the Amazon.eg storefront existed in Egypt.

The findings were presented at the Global Entrepreneurship Festival in Cairo, billed as the largest entrepreneurship gathering in Africa. The event was held under the auspices of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.

Amazon entered the market through its 2017 acquisition of Souq.com and launched the Amazon.eg storefront in 2021. Since then the company has built out fulfilment and delivery capacity, and it now presents the past ten years as a single investment horizon rather than a series of separate commitments.

Omar Elsahy, general manager of Amazon Egypt, framed the record as a long-term bet on the country and its people. He said the company had invested consistently through the decade in infrastructure, technology, logistics and in tens of thousands of Egyptian businesses that trade through its platform and, in doing so, grow and create jobs.

That spending continued through currency volatility and wider regional uncertainty, according to the company. Elsahy said Amazon kept investing during periods of economic uncertainty because it believed in Egypt's potential.

He credited the results partly to others. The figures, he said, reflected more than Amazon's own outlay: they also captured the ambition of Egyptian entrepreneurs, the resilience of local businesses and the talent of the workforce. He said the company was proud of what it had built in Egypt and intended to keep building.

Amazon argues the investment has had knock-on effects, supporting local supply chains, stimulating demand and creating the conditions for growth and employment in logistics, technology and professional services.

Part of the job footprint comes from Amazon's own operations, including fulfilment and logistics roles and a regional customer service centre. The rest sits with suppliers, delivery partners and other service providers that work with the company.

Smaller businesses account for a large share of that activity. Thousands of Egyptian small and medium-sized enterprises sell through Amazon, and the company says tens of thousands of selling partners reach customers inside Egypt and abroad. Those merchants create jobs, hire teams and build livelihoods, and Amazon describes the economic activity they generate as a critical part of its impact in the country.

On the consumer side, Amazon Now delivers groceries, fresh produce bought from local farmers and everyday household essentials within minutes, working from micro-fulfilment centres across Egypt.

Amazon said sustained investment in infrastructure, technology and local businesses reinforced its position as a long-term partner in Egypt's growth and job creation, and that it remained committed to supporting entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses. It said it would put more money into people, technology and infrastructure to help the economy grow, and that it would keep building for the long term.

The company also noted that Egypt continues to prioritise private-sector investment, entrepreneurship and job creation.

The disclosure lands as Cairo leans on private companies to absorb a growing workforce, a task made harder by currency volatility that raises costs for importers. For e-commerce operators, warehouses and delivery networks are the parts of the business that cannot easily be shifted offshore, which makes the scale of that physical build-out the more telling measure of commitment. Amazon's framing, built around infrastructure, small sellers and jobs, maps onto the priorities the government has set out. The numbers are also the company's own, produced by a consultancy it engaged.