Arab Finance: Egypt is gearing up to allow individuals to buy and sell government treasury bills (T-bills) through brokerage companies within the next three to four months, the Egyptian Exchange's (EGX) Chairman Ahmed El-Sheikh told Asharq Business.
He added that collaborative efforts are underway with the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) and the Ministry of Finance to enable brokerage firms to directly trade T-bills via the EGX.
Currently, only selected banks, designated as major dealers, are permitted to purchase and trade government debt instruments issued by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on behalf of the Ministry of Finance.
However, Egypt aims to expand issuance of domestic financial instrumentsby around 33% to reach EGP 2.709 trillion in the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2024/2025, compared to EGP 2.03 trillion estimated for the current FY.
Moreover, El-Sheikh said that the EGX is currently slecting between 30 to 40 listed compnaies for inclusion in the Islamic index.