Egypt builds 24 smart cities amid surveillance and inequality concerns

Egypt has completed 24 smart cities since launching its National Smart Cities Strategy in 2016, with ambitions to build 38 by 2050 and house 40 million people in data-driven urban spaces under a $20 billion investment tied to Vision 2030, according to a World Bank report and government strategy documents.

The flagship New Administrative Capital (NAC), located 45 kilometers east of Cairo, is the most visible symbol of that push. Covering 700 square kilometers and designed for 6.5 million residents, the NAC features a 90-square-kilometer solar farm, an electric rail link to Cairo, and more than 6,000 cameras for smart traffic and security management, per World Bank data and official reports.

The promise is considerable: integrated solid waste management, a cloud-based data center for city services, T-Money transport cards for seamless travel, and smart CCTV networks-all part of what the World Bank calls 'quick-win' smart city services for Cairo. But the rapid deployment of surveillance infrastructure and data collection systems is raising ethical questions that the government's rollout plans have not fully addressed.

The Spine and the Surveillance State

A separate $27 billion mixed-use project called 'The Spine' (Spine City), being developed east of Cairo, adds another layer of complexity. It promises 5G and fiber optic connectivity, plus smart home systems-but that level of networked infrastructure also creates an expanded attack surface for hackers and a potential goldmine for mass surveillance, privacy advocates warn.

Cairo already hosts more than 600 tech startups with strong presences in fintech, healthtech, and e-commerce, according to government figures. The city is Africa's largest tech hub, hosting nearly 20% of all African tech startups and ranking third in the MENA startup landscape per the Global Startup Ecosystem Report of 2024. Yet much of that entrepreneurial energy is focused on consumer apps and financial services, not on the governance and privacy frameworks needed for smart city data.

Small Cairo businesses like Bellies En-Route, a food tour company, and MaxAB, a retailer digitization platform that serves more than 150,000 traditional retailers and has raised $101.2 million in total funding, are beneficiaries of the digital transformation. But small vendors without tech literacy risk being left behind as cashless transport cards and cloud-based permit systems become the norm.

No Clear Data Governance Model

The World Bank's quick-win services list includes integrated smart CCTV for the capital-without specifying data retention policies, access controls, or oversight mechanisms for the 6,000-plus cameras already installed. Egypt's new labor law, effective September 1, 2025, explicitly protects freelancers and the SME digital ecosystem, but no equivalent legislation governs the collection and use of personal data from smart city sensors.

What happens next is uncertain. The government has set a 2050 deadline for its 38-city target and continues to invest heavily-the NAC alone represents billions in state and private capital. But without transparent data governance rules, independent oversight, or clear inclusion strategies for Cairo's existing urban poor, the smart city experiment risks creating a two-tier metropolis: one wired and watched, the other unconnected and ignored.

For now, the cameras are on. The question is who controls the footage.