US Donates $14.5 million to Egypt Public University Students

The United States government will provide another $14.5 million to support Egyptian public university students to develop their careers.

The funding allocated through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will bring the US contribution in Career Centers to $33 million and will settle 30 Career Development Centers at 22 public universities in Egypt by 2025, Erudera.com reports.

The US Ambassador, Jonathan R. Cohen, announced the good news during the virtual Career Expo, explaining that these centers will serve about 1.5 million students.

“With this additional $14.5 million US government investment, we’re helping students transition from education to employment in direct coordination with the private sector so that a new generation of Egyptians can parlay their academic studies into meaningful employment, cutting-edge research, and future leadership roles at Egypt’s premier companies,” Ambassador Cohen said.

During the virtual Career Expo, which was set up to provide a COVID-19 safe environment, about 6,000 students had the chance to meet with employers from Egypt’s leading companies.

Over the last four decades, the US has founded more than 2,000 schools, trained 100,000 teachers, offered $350 million scholarships and student exchanges, and assisted over 70,000 students on the pre-higher education level to thrive in the labor force.

US economic support to Egypt through USAID accounts for over $30 billion since 1978 and promotes a healthy, educated, and employed population.

Egypt’s economy has been promoted to a middle-income country under president Abdelfattah el-Sisi, presenting Egypt’s 2030 Vision, a project that aims to diversify the country’s economy.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt’s unemployment rate has dropped to 7.7 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the eight percent rate marked during the same quarter in 2019.

Despite the results, CAPMAS revealed that from the end of March to the end of April in 2020, the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent, mainly due to the government’s protective measures against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other data relating to Egypt’s unemployed populations are:

• Labour force increased by 0.2 percent, making a total of 29.008 million people employed.
• Unemployed people are at 2.236 million, with 31,000 people less than 2019.
• Unemployed individuals between 15 and 29 marked 68.5 percentage points compared to 69.5 percent during the fourth quarter of 2019.

According to the recent data, the United States has donated over $47 billion in foreign aid, and over 35 percent of that budget went to ten countries, among which is Afghanistan with $4.89 billion, followed by Israel with $3.3 billion, Jordan $1.72 billion and Lebanon positioned last at $790 million.