DHL Global Forwarding, the leading international provider of air, sea and road freight services, and Commercial International Bank-Egypt (CIB), the largest private sector bank in the country, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will see both companies collaborating to provide world-class freight and customs handling services to more than 50,000 Egyptian enterprises. Under the new agreement, DHL Global Forwarding will offer special priced services on freight, customs and regulation as part of CIB’s broader portfolio of services to its customers.​

The partnership comes as DHL experiences double-digit growth, driven largely by regional demand for Egyptian-made goods. Over the course of 2018, CIB more than doubled its export volumes, leveraging on its wide network of more than 240 global correspondent banks around the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, strengthening and activating communication channels with exporters/associations.

Amadou Diallo, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding, Middle East and Africa said, “We are optimistic about Egypt’s growth potential as the economy is growing faster than most other major economies in the region, and is enjoying higher purchasing power than the rest of the continent . Despite this, many of Egypt’s high-growth industries, including textiles and chemicals – which make up 15% and 20% of the country’s non-petroleum exports respectively   – often face complicated customs and regulatory requirements when entering overseas markets. Our agreement with CIB will enable businesses to grow, either by lowering entry-level barriers to new markets or connecting customers with the right expertise to minimize the potential risks of any expansionary effort.” 

“Egypt’s major industries are expanding healthily, along with rising domestic confidence, as seen from the increasing sales of fast-moving consumer goods.  While we are seeing a growth trend for exports of chemicals, textiles and food products, particularly to East and Southern Africa – we expect that businesses are still eager to witness more growth,” said Rashwan Hammady, Head of Business Banking, CIB. “Our partnership with CIB provides Egyptian businesses access to both world-class freight services and expert logistics counsel, and we are excited to see how this partnership can help Egypt’s enterprises further tap onto international market opportunities,” said Magued Ragheb, Country Manager, DHL Global Forwarding Egypt.

Hussein Abaza, CEO, CIB said, “With Egypt’s economic growth swiftly accelerating to increasingly robust levels,  our more than 50,000 business customers are broadly adopting an expansionary stance in their activities – one which requires robust, cost-effective logistics capacity on both a domestic and global scale to succeed. With special focus on meeting exporters’ needs, those services complement our own financial offerings whether through our credit products, cash and trade management, correspondent banking network, or the advisory services provided by our relationship managers in supporting the growth of Egyptian enterprises, and we’re excited to be partnering with DHL as the global leader in freight forwarding to give our customers an added competitive advantage in how they reach new markets and opportunities with as little headwind as possible.”