Engineer Mohamed Ibrahim, Deputy CEO and spokesperson for the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, stated that the decision to govern the import of mobile phones has led to a 60% to 70% reduction in phone smuggling. He added in a television statement to ‘Sada Elbalad 2’ that the main goal was to localize the industry in Egypt, not to impose new customs duties. The Egyptian market consumes between 20 to 25 million mobile phones annually, costing over 100 billion Egyptian pounds (approximately 2 billion USD). He emphasized the necessity of having a strong local industry to meet this large demand instead of importing at high costs. All locally manufactured phones are exempt from taxes. Major global phone manufacturers have established branches and factories in Egypt to cover local market needs and potentially export in the future.

Local manufacturing has tripled production of mobile phones by global companies inside the country, with over five million phones produced locally since the beginning of the year. He concluded by confirming that all locally manufactured phones of global brands are free from additional taxes.