Cairo's New Administrative Capital - Landmark or Lavish?

posted on: Jul 30, 2025

By: Taim Al-Faraje/Arab America Contributing Writer

As of mid-2025, Egypt’s New Administrative Capital (NAC) has entered its second phase of construction. What this means for the new capital is thousands of families moving into newly built housing, establishing museums, an opera house, a training center for artists and musicians, and more. President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi stated that the NAC “heralds a new era of modern governmental work,” demonstrating his excitement for the project and optimism for what’s to come in Egypt’s economically expansive future.

However, many did not receive the venture as immaculate in any sense; as critics from within and outside of Egypt, particularly those whose main concern with the country is its historically problematic wealth inequality and poverty, are disturbed by the government’s focus on economic growth rather than enriching or educating the average citizen. In a country where about 60% of its population lives near or below the poverty line, 30% of its population attends college, with just half of them graduating, and one of the lowest female labor forces globally, it raises the question: How necessary is the expansion of Egypt’s capital?

Why is Egypt constructing the New Capital?

The NAC has a number of goals to fulfill, including alleviating Cairo’s congestion, creating a modern, smart city, improving government efficiency, stimulating job creation, expanding housing, and boosting tourism. This section will explore how and why the new city will satisfy some of the more important objectives. 

Cairo’s Congestion:

Cairo is known to have bad congestion for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to poor enforcement of traffic laws, lack of modern technology at intersections, illegal stopping on roads, and more. The NAC plans to solve these issues using methods like AI-based traffic management, building roads with wide, segregated lanes, extensive traffic enforcement and ticketing efforts, a light-rail system, and hosting of 6 million inhabitants, which will take quite the load off Cairo’s 20 million.

Job Creation:

According to the Government’s “State Information Service” website, “ it plans to create tens of thousands of job opportunities for Egyptian youth after operating the Central Business District of the New Administrative Capital (NAC), subsequently creating added value to the Egyptian economy.” This will be great for the Egyptian economy as Egypt has notoriously bad youth unemployment rates; 90% of unemployed people in Egypt are under 30. This creation of jobs will lead to increased spending and independence, allowing the market to flow.

Government Efficiency:

Cairo has had issues in efficiency, with problems ranging from complex administrative processes, widespread bribery, and connections-based favoritism, to government services being paper-based and requiring in-person visits, as well as the underpayment and under-training of employees. Needless to say, Egypt is in much need of reforms when it comes to its administrative process; this is where the NAC comes in. It will use online systems to replace the outdated paper-based methods of the past, as the government has moved key ministries to one area so they can operate in a non-congested setting, and it will contain a central digital portal allowing citizens to access government services remotely without needing to reach an employee.

Considering that these are not the only ways the NAC will speed up Egypt’s modernization and advancement process, we can see how this is a big step forward for Egypt. However, many critics and journalists are disappointed and believe this is a huge step back for Egypt, which is what the next section will examine.

Critics of the NAC

Since the government announced the construction of Egypt’s NAC, critics have voiced harsh and unbounded criticism. Complaints ranging from irresponsible loan spending for the project to a lack of focus on the country’s poor are numerous. We will explore some of the main complaints below.

Expensive Housing:

The move of 6 million Egyptians to this new city sounds amazing in hindsight, but with a GDP per capita of $3000 and an average two-bedroom apartment cost of $50,000 in the new city, how will Egyptians afford to purchase homes there? The answer lies in el-Sisi’s “Housing for All Egyptians” initiative, in which he will house 1 million lower-income citizens.

The Issue is: the housing initiative does not provide low-income housing in the new administrative capital; rather, it aims to build units across existing cities. According to critics such as Al Jazeera’s Mustafa Menshawy, the UN’s Leilani Farha, and the MIR, there is a “lack of income mix within [the] housing estates.” A country with at least 30 million in poverty, it’s hard to see how this will help, as it does little to help the housing crisis among the impoverished. Developers are building a growing number of gated communities within the NAC will further exacerbate wealth inequality in Egypt, creating a sense of class segregation.

Economic Burden and Authoritarian Control:

With an estimated cost of 58 billion dollars, the NAC’s funding primarily comes from public funding, state loans, and military real estate sales. Critics say the government should have spent this money on reinvigorating Egypt’s existing cities. 

Some believe that a primary benefit of the NAC for the government as it makes it nearly impossible for protesters to overthrow the regime. Considering protests and coups have a rich history in Egypt, with El-Sisi himself rising to power through a coup, this new city may make way for a coup-less future in Egypt. With over 6,000 cameras and extensive avenues that make controlling crowds easier, it’s interesting to see how popular discontent in Egypt’s future will pan out. 

Conclusion

With large numbers of people, regular and professional, on both sides of the aisle when it comes to approval of the new project, it’s thrilling to see where the new city could go. On one hand, job creation and decongestion of Cairo are promising feats of the new city. On the other hand, it may do little to solve Egypt’s documented wealth disproportion. We pray Egypt overcomes its problems and thrives, as we do the rest of the world.

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