Today we're talking about a very important sector in Egypt's economy — the pharmaceutical market, which has just crossed $8.5 billion, growing 37% in a single year and climbing four places in the global rankings. That's not just a health story — it's a finance and logistics story. Behind every medicine box reaching a pharmacy is a chain of cash collection, credit decisions, and increasingly digital payments. To unpack how the country's largest pharmaceutical distributor is financing that growth, I'm joined by Dr. Mina Beshara, Group CFO of Pharma Overseas. Dr. Mina, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Thank you for having me.
The Egyptian Drug Authority has reported that Egypt's pharma market grew 37% to $8.5 billion in a year. From where you sit as CFO of the country's largest distributor, does the finance and cash flow side of the business feel like it's keeping pace with that growth?
Honestly, we've been growing at double digits for the past few years. The only slowdown was during 2023 and 2024, when we had the devaluation of the Egyptian pound — when you convert to US dollars, the growth doesn't feel the same. But since the currency stabilized from March 2024, we've seen things moving in the right direction. Healthy growth. People are able to spend more on healthcare because incomes are rising again with annual increases, and currency stability allows everyone to fund their needs better year on year. In 2026 we've seen a very healthy market — both the private and public sectors are growing. The EDA's figures are pretty much in line with what we see on the ground. Some manufacturers have even seen 100% year-on-year growth. And we're also localizing a lot of drug manufacturing, with key local players doing a very strong job.
Pharma Overseas covers over 54,000 pharmacies across Egypt. At that scale, what's actually the harder problem — moving the medicine or moving the money?
Definitely the money. Moving the medicine is manageable — you have your systems, your supply chain, your fleet of over 1,000 vehicles. You can scale your customer base from 30,000 to 40,000 and handle it. But the increasing amounts of cash, the growing need for financing and working capital — that's the bigger challenge. Managing the cash is by far the harder part.
You partnered with Fawry last year to digitize payments and cash management. A year and a half in — what has changed operationally? Faster collections, better visibility, fewer disputes?
Definitely. Two years ago, payments were essentially bank transfers, cash, and checks. When we anticipated the growth of fintech in Egypt, we expected maybe 10 to 15% of our collections to go digital across all our channels including Fawry. But surprisingly, after exactly a year and a half, more than 30% of our collections are now digital — through instant transfers, mobile apps like Fawry and others. More than 50% of our customers have chosen to pay digitally at least once. Some use digital one month and revert to cash the next when they have excess, but the fact that half of my clients have used digital payments by any means — that I never anticipated two years ago. Outside of Greater Cairo and Alexandria, digital payments were quite uncommon. Not anymore. The pace of growth is astonishing. I think by the end of this year or mid next year, I may even close some of our physical cash centres entirely. It's accelerating faster than anyone expected.
Digital is going mainstream by the minute.
Faster than anticipated, yes.
Egypt has faced currency volatility, and there are concerns it could return. Import costs have squeezed margins across industries. How exposed is pharma distribution specifically, and how do you hedge against it?
Between 2022 and 2024 it was genuinely difficult. Opening letters of credit for imports was a real challenge, and manufacturers faced uncertainty because most raw materials are imported. But things are very stable now. I have to give credit to Egypt's central bank — during the crisis earlier this year, when hot money was flowing out of the Middle East because of regional tensions, the central bank acted wisely. No one felt a shortage in foreign currency. The exchange rate moved up briefly to around 54.5 to the dollar but has now settled back to around 48. Importation is running smoothly. As distributors, we have a fixed margin structure set by decree, so if products become more expensive, we maintain our margin on the higher-priced item. We're not facing challenges anymore — in fact, we now have surplus in some materials and finished products. My view is that we'll see further stability over the next 18 months through to the end of 2027, with the exchange rate remaining in the 40s.
Egypt wants to be a regional pharma manufacturing and export hub by 2030. From a distribution and finance perspective, what's the missing piece?
The only missing piece was production capacity. Manufacturers were barely covering local demand, and we still needed to import around 40% of our needs. That's changed significantly. We're now seeing major local manufacturers exporting at scale and actively penetrating markets in the Gulf, Africa, and even Europe. I expect that by 2030, Egypt will be one of the biggest exporters of pharmaceutical products in the Middle East.
Dr. Mina Beshara, thank you very much for coming on the show. It's been a pleasure.
My pleasure entirely. Thank you so much.
