Cairo – The controversy is renewed in the Egyptian endowment file, after the government announced its intention to limit the assets of the commission, in preparation for its presentation to the private sector, a step that sparked widespread reservations among economists, law men and some members of Parliament.
Renewed controversy
The endowment crisis is not a result of the moment, but rather returns to past decades, as the former Minister of Endowments, Sheikh Muhammad Mitwalli Al -Shaarawi, approved the existence of corruption within the Endowments Authority in the mid -seventies, during a famous parliamentary interrogation, and today, the controversy is renewed after Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly announced the assignment of his advisor to religious affairs Osama Al -Azhari to conduct a comprehensive inventory of the assets of the commission, and the inventory of investment opportunities to put these assets before the sector Private, or re -employ it to support the state treasury.
How many endowments in Egypt?
The numbers are widely conflicting with the value of what the Awqaf Authority runs, and followers of the figures are due to a variation in the evaluation, in light of the high rates of inflation and the decline in the value of the pound against the dollar during the past few years in large proportions.
- The total market value of Egyptian endowment assets exceeds 3 trillion Egyptian pounds (more than 60.3 billion dollars), according to statements by officials in the Ministry of Awqaf during the years 2023 and 2024.
- President Abdel Fattah El -Sisi indicated in 2018 that the size of the endowment is 114 thousand stops, the endowment assets are estimated at 180 billion pounds, and the size of agricultural lands is estimated at half a million acres of agricultural and gardens.
- The endowment represents a quarter of real estate wealth in Egypt, with an estimated value of about 157 billion pounds in 2025.
Where is that wealth concentrated?
- Endowment origins are spread throughout Egypt, in both urban and rural areas.
- Some areas where there are important endowment assets include the Ataba Market, Square, Al -Ataba Street, Al -Azhar, Al -Azhar area, Abdul Aziz Street, Al -Ghuriyya, Fatima Al -Nabawiya area, the arms and tents market, the Hajj and Al -Kiswa Agency (Radwan Bey), the palaces of Prince Muhammad Ali, King Fouad in Kafr El -Sheikh, and the archaeological area in the obelisk, in addition to many palaces, insults and antiquities.
- The Ministry of Awqaf also has 17 stops in Greece, including the Muhammad Ali Palace.
- The Endowments Authority specializes in ownership of lands in the finest Delta regions such as Dakahlia, Damietta, Kafr El -Sheikh, the Northern Coast, Damietta Port, Jamsa and Baltim.
What are the sectors in which there is?
- Real estate and lands: Residential and commercial real estate, agricultural lands, space lands.
- Financial investmentsShare in some banks and companies, and to buy companies and factories completely.
The Endowments Authority is looking for investment in areas such as construction and construction, animal and poultry production, packaging, mining, financial services and insurance, agriculture, various industries (plastic, wooden, pharmaceutical, and food), hotels, electricity and renewable energy, restaurants, resorts and tourist villages, transport and logistics, according to the Public Investment Authority and free zones.
Who manages the origins of endowments in Egypt?
- The Egyptian Endowments Authority, a governmental body affiliated with the Ministry of Awqaf, is managing and investing endowment funds.
- The authority operates under Law No. 209 of 2020 to reorganize the Egyptian Endowments Authority.
- The authority on the Ministry of Awqaf on the management and investment of the funds that specialize in it.
The authority announced its willingness to provide 31 plots of land in 11 governorates for partnership with the private sector in economic projects.
The authority is allowed to appoint a public or private legal persons or others in collecting its revenues in exchange for a commission.
Despite previous promises of comprehensive limitation operations, the former head of the authority, Salah Junaidi, revealed that the inventory project that he started was not completed because of his referral to retirement, indicating the absence of a sustainable institutional documentation system.
How transparent numbers?
Economist Ahmed Khuzaim says that the varying official and informal estimates about the wealth of endowments reflects a clear absence of transparency, as the ministry mentions trillion pounds, while other sources talk about 3 trillion.
Khazim explains in a comment to Al -Jazeera Net, that the authority has about half a million acres of land, but the ministry recognizes only 420 thousand acres, which means losing or seizing at least 80 thousand acres, and the authority also has 120 thousand housing units, most of which are concentrated in Cairo and the provinces, as well as property abroad in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Greece.
Khazim warns that offering these assets without a clear legal framework may open the door for financial corruption and legal transgressions, adding: “The government does not have the right to dispose of these funds, but its mission is limited to its management according to the conditions of those who stand.”
He called for the creation of an independent endowment fund subject to parliament control, and is managed by accurate financial and administrative standards, instead of relying on clerics who, according to his opinion, have the competence necessary to manage a wallet estimated trillions of pounds.
Privatization and inheritance conflicts
For his part, a professor of political economy, Abdel Nabi Abdel -Muttalib, supported the idea of developing and developing endowment administration, but he warned that this may turn into a cover to privatize or sell endowments to compensate for the state’s deficit in revenues.
In a comment to Al -Jazeera Net, he suggested that the “switching system” that allows the sale of low -value endless origin and another purchase on the condition of maintaining the spending specified by the endowment.
Abdel -Muttalib warned that the sale or rental of assets directly may constitute a violation of the endowment law, and the state is exposed to lawsuits from the heirs or those who have legal or legal rights in it, as he expressed his fear of converting endowments into cash assets instead of fixed notables, which exposes them to the risk of erosion due to inflation or market fluctuations.
Significant scenarios
Other warnings came from a member of the Constituent Assembly of the 2012 constitution, Counselor Mohamed Nagy Darbala, who warned that the state’s plan to amend the owner’s law and the tenant may be linked to the discharge plan in central Cairo from its residents, and to turn it into a tourist interface, especially since many real estate there are subject to endowments or the old rental system.
Derbala pointed out that the Awqaf Authority has already begun to replace its assets in central Cairo with assets in the new administrative capital, considering in his talk to Al -Jazeera Net, that this “replacement” may be just a cover to remove real estate from its historical sites.
He asked about the state’s intentions in investing the endowment assets on the stock exchange, similar to the experience of social insurance funds that incurred heavy losses without accountability, as he put it.
Involving the private sector “unilateral decision”
In turn, a member of the House of Representatives for the Social Democratic Party, Sanaa Al -Saeed, expressed her surprise that a file of this size was not discussed inside the parliament, stressing that “the decision was taken unionally without a community dialogue or a parliamentary debate.”
She stressed that the endowments are a special money that cannot be disposed of without referring to the conditions of the standing.
Al -Saeed indicated that there are more than 40,000 violations related to the endowment properties, calling in an interview with Al -Jazeera Net to re -restrict them and recover the rapist before thinking about involving the private sector.
The deputy proposed the establishment of endowment funds managed by specialized economic competencies to ensure the optimal use of endowment returns, while preserving the legal purposes of the endowments, and linking the returns to development projects that serve the community in education, health and combating poverty.
The endowment is not public money
The former Assistant Foreign Minister, former Ambassador Mohamed Morsi, stressed that “the endowments are individual ownership, not governmental,” noting that the stands have stopped their property to the faces of righteousness, and no government has the right to change these purposes.
Morsi said that the inventory may be useful if it is accomplished with the aim of reforming the administration and recovering the encroachments, but he warned that any step towards leasing or sale must be temporary, clear and specific at periods not exceeding 20 to 25 years, and with strict conditions that ensure the continuity of the endowment.
Ambassador Morsi called for the management of this wealth to take over specialized economic experts, while the religious presidency remains symbolic or supervisory only.
Morsi concluded his speech to Al -Jazeera Net, warning: “The sale of endowment property is a risk that exceeds the sale of the state’s property itself. This is not a public property, but rather special donations that were loved to good deeds, and it is not permissible to neglect them under any political or economic circumstance.”
Jurisprudence
The former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Endowments, Sheikh Salama Abdel -Qawi, said that Islamic law is looking at the endowment as a great work that cannot be infringed, and the conditions of the endowment are granted a place parallel to the legal texts themselves.
In his interview with Al -Jazeera Net, Abd al -Qawi explained that the rule of “the condition of the endowment as the text of the street” means that any condition that the donor places in stopping it – whether it is a condition for marrying orphans or supporting students of science, Hajj or others – must be respected and adhered to, stressing that the disposal of endowment funds in a way that violates these conditions is considered religious and explicit betrayal.
He added that the Sharia holds the applicants responsible for the endowment – the Ministry of Endowments or Al -Azhar – the duty to implement these conditions without distortion or fraud, considering that the minister, or his representative, is not considered the owner of the endowments but rather a headmaster, and his task is closer to the mission of the “administrative servant”, which is not entitled to sell, replace or re -specialize except with accurate conditions, and after reviewing the interests of the endowment and arrested for them.
Abdel -Qawi continued: “The idea that some of them promoted is that the endowments are not confined or unknown.
Sheikh Salama Abdel -Qawi stressed that the endowments are a religious, societal and heavy honesty responsibility, it is not permissible to underestimate or manage it in accordance with immediate political or economic interests.
In turn, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly added to his statements that sparked controversy by saying – at a press conference that followed his meeting with the Minister of Awqaf – that the government will not sell the assets of the Endowments Authority, but rather will increase its returns through strategic partnerships with the private sector, noting that the goal is to achieve the maximum benefit from these assets to support the economy and development, while maintaining the ownership of the entire state.
Madbouly added that this is part of a broader plan to take advantage of the unified state’s assets, stressing that all procedures take place legally and transparently, taking into account the social and legal dimension of endowments.
