Egypt Pushes Beyond Cairo With Regional Digital Hubs

Egypt is broadening its technology ambitions beyond its capital city, with the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) presenting new data to this effect. Insights underscore the rise of regional innovation centres and the country’s growing appeal as a hub for digital services, engineering, and offshoring.

“Egypt’s tech growth is no longer a Cairo-only story,” said Ahmed El-Zaher, CEO of ITIDA. “We are building capabilities in cities like Mansoura, Assiut, Luxor and Alexandria — places where talent is abundant, motivated and increasingly connected to global opportunities. This decentralisation is becoming one of Egypt’s biggest competitive strengths.”

The shift is notable in a global context. While many emerging markets continue to concentrate tech work in capital cities, Egypt is actively steering investment and training programmes into tier-2 locations, a strategy designed to ease urban pressure, expand economic inclusion and create a broader national talent base for international investors.

Egypt’s broadened tech narrative aligns with its ambition to create an economy where talent in any governorate can take part in the digital future. With new hubs coming to life and private-sector partners expanding beyond Cairo, ITIDA’s approach is reshaping Egypt’s national innovation map and creating new entry points for international firms seeking scale and diversity. The result is a further expansion of Egypt’s offshoring footprint and the national presence of global players.

ITIDA’s latest update currently spotlights Creativa Innovation Hub in Mansoura, now one of the most active local centres supporting tech upskilling, freelance employment and startup creation.

A Regional Model For Tech Growth

Since its establishment, Creativa Innovation Hub in Mansoura city has trained well over 11,600 youth in digital and technical skills, supported over 2,000 entrepreneurs, helped develop 1,500+ digital prototypes, enabled more than 2,030 freelancers to access new income streams, hosted 19 hackathons and innovation challenges and built a growing pipeline of healthtech and AI-driven solutions start-ups.

In 2025 alone, ITIDA supported 32 start-ups, trained 2,400 new participants, and provided services to almost 1,000 freelancers, with the latter reporting an average annual income of $18,200; a figure that marks a growing contribution of the gig economy to small and mid-sized cities.

The Creativa Innovation Hub in Mansoura is one of a nationwide network of 26 centres supporting startups, freelancers & tech youth.

Private-Sector Momentum: qTech As A Regional Anchor

Mansoura’s rise is further reinforced by the growth of qTech, one of the region’s most established engineering and digital transformation companies. Backed by a team of 200 Egyptian engineers and IT specialists, qTech in Egypt operates across a broad spectrum of high-value technology disciplines, including software development, artificial intelligence, data engineering, quality assurance, business analysis, and digital product management, reflecting the depth of technical capabilities emerging in Egypt’s tier-2 cities.

The company’s footprint is part of a broader trend. Mansoura is now home to more than 90 local and multinational IT firms exporting services and operating offshoring centres, in addition to Egypt’s nationwide network of over 270 global delivery centres.

Global Demand Driving Local Capability

Demand for Egypt’s digital services has accelerated as companies in Europe, the Gulf and the US are choosing Egypt as part of a deliberate strategy to access high-quality, multilingual talent and a mature offshoring ecosystem while diversifying their delivery models. These range from an abundant talent pool, digital skills, and a multilingual workforce with strong English, German, French and Gulf-Arabic capability, competitive cost structures, a maturing engineering R&D, technology innovation ecosystem, robust government support coupled with modern, scalable infrastructure to policy stability and a cohesive, long-term national offshoring strategy.

ITIDA’s recent Global Offshoring Summit highlighted this shift, positioning Egypt as a strategic partner rather than just a services destination with growing strengths in high-value digital services, IC and chip design, embedded systems, AI-driven CX and multilingual business services.