CAIRO — Two years ago, Mohamed Fakhry, known to his friends as Kalusha, had a plan to purchase a three-wheeled, motorized rickshaw known as tuk-tuk as a stable source of income.
At the time Fakhry, who is in his 20s and lives in Cairo’s neighborhood of Salam, had 80,000 Egyptian pounds he inherited from his mother. He would also recover 12,000 pounds from other sources, and borrow another 30,000 pounds from his sister.
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The funds — 122,000 pounds (approximately $2,460) — were enough in 2022 to buy a new tuk-tuk.
But successive waves of price hikes dashed Kalusha’s dreams. By the time he collected his money at the end of 2022, the price of tuk-tuks had climbed to 150,000 pounds ($3,028) and in the following year, it became 220,000 pounds ($4,440).
Over the past five years, tuk-tuk prices have skyrocketed because of a government ban on importing the vehicle, and the inflation waves that rocked the Arab world’s most populous country.
The tuk-tuk is a major transportation means across Egypt, especially in slums and the countryside. It’s a main source of living for about 10 million people, according to Sabry Abdo, spokesman for the Tuk-tuk Owners’ Association.
In recent years, the government has launched a campaign to limit the use of tuk-tuks in Cairo and other major cities. Many parties have sought to provide safer and less polluting alternatives.
But such alternatives are not affordable for millions of young people for whom tuk-tuks are — or could become — a main source of income.
Soaring prices
In 2020, a tuk-tuk manufactured by the well-known Indian company Bajaj Auto, and assembled in Egypt by Ghabbour Auto, was sold at 36,000 pounds. It was a modest price, but many young people couldn’t afford it.
Among them was Ahmed Abdallah, a young man in his 20s from the Suez Canal’s province of Ismailia, who at the time earned 3,500 pounds monthly from his work in a private company.
Abdalla was required to pay 11,000 pounds as an upfront cost, with a 2,700-pounds monthly instalment — more than three quarters of his salary.
Eventually the man decided to postpone the purchase until he could save money and buy a tuk-tuk in cash.
Abdullah was then conscripted for his compulsory military service. But he managed to save the funds needed to buy a tuk-tuk by the end of his military service at the end of 2021.
But he was stunned when he found that tuk-tuk prices had tripled to 105,000 pounds.
The reason […] is exploitation, monopoly, and lack of state oversight.
From 2020 to 2024, the price of Bajaj tuk-tuk increased by about 238%, outpacing the inflation rate hikes during the same period.
Tuk-tuk prices have become the clearest indicator of the pressures on millions of unemployed young people.
The government ban on importing tuk-tuk components in 2021 along with the devaluation of the local currency, the pound, against the U.S. dollar, caused tuk-tuk prices to hike significantly until earlier this year.
The prices decreased slightly after the exchange rate and the market in general stabilized following a series of measures taken by the government in March.
“The shortage of supply due to the import ban with the rise in the dollar against the pound contributed to the strong increase in the price of the tuk-tuk,” Hisham Hamdy, consumer sector analyst at Naeem Holding Investment Bank, told Al-Manassa.
Hamdy said that all the tuk-tuks in the market now are stock from the period before the import ban. “Ghabbour, the local assembler of tuk-tuks, has stopped selling it,” he said.
Although the tuk-tuks in the market were imported before the devolution of the local currency in 2023 then in 2024, traders have hiked the prices to match the latest exchange rate.
The 2023 devolution saw the U.S. currency traded at 31 pounds for 1$. In 2024, 1$ is traded at 48 pounds.
“The reason … is exploitation, monopoly, and lack of state oversight,” Abdo, spokesman for the Tuk-Tuk Owners’ Association, told Al-Manassa.
A major source of income
According to data from the Tuk-Tuk Owners Association, there are about 5.4 million tuk-tuk operating across the country.
“There are tuk-tuks that employ 2 or 3 drivers, so here you are talking about at least 10 million citizens, meaning about a tenth of the Egyptian population works with tuk-tuks,” Abdo said.
Given their widespread use as means of transportation and source of income, prices hikes have had a huge impact on those who invested in tuk-tuks as a small business, including many with university degrees like Ahmed Mahmoud, a young man from the Nile Delta province of Sharqia.
Mahmoud wrote this sentence on the back of his tuk-tuk: “The profession is not ours, but may Allah help us,” which sums up his journey from studying oriental languages at Zagazig University to working as a tuk-tuk driver as a second job to cover his family’s needs.
The father of two children said he earns an average of 300 pounds () a day, of which he keeps only 120 pounds (.4) after deducting fuel fees and his monthly instalment.
Unemployment among young people is a chronic problem in Egypt. A recent study by Ghada Barsoum, a researcher at the American University in Cairo, found that one in every 12 young people in Egypt is unemployed.
Tuk-tuk prices have become the clearest indicator of the pressures on millions of unemployed young people.
The government-run Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics said in a report earlier this year that 82.5% of the total unemployed have university degrees.
Other rising costs
It is not only tuk-tuks that have become more expensive.
The price of fuel, which has significantly increased in recent years, is another hurdle. Over the past decade, the price of 80-octane gasoline, which is used for tuk-tuks, has increased by 1,100%.
There is also the cost of required licenses which has increased causing many to avoid trying to secure one. According to data from the Tuk-tuk Owners’ Association, only 5% of the vehicles operating in Egypt have an official license, and the remaining are outside state control.
Abdo, the association’s spokesman, said the license now costs 13,000 pounds — compared to 4,000 pounds in the past.
Alternatives, but more expensive
As the government banned importing tuk-tuk, Ghabbour Auto said this month it would cooperate with a military-run company to produce an alternative vehicle, which will be assembled from parts imported by Bajaj Auto.
The new car, known as Qute, is similar to the tuk-tuk, in terms of its small size, making it an alternative for the same population groups seeking this type of transportation.
But it is expected to be expensive, said consumer sector analyst Hamdy.
“The new vehicle will be expensive, and therefore not many will accept it as an alternative to the tuk-tuk,” he said.
There is another environment-friendly initiative supported by the Ministry of Higher Education to produce a small electric-powered car, costing 200,000 pounds — an expensive price for many Egyptians.
Amid the soaring prices of new tuk-tuk, many resorted to used vehicles. Kalusha purchased a used tuk-tuk made in 2019 for 85,000 pounds.
But vehicles manufactured in 2021, 2022 and 2023 are much more expensive, costing at least 140,000 pounds in the used-vehicle market — reflecting the impact of staggering inflation in Egypt.
