BOP seminar in Cairo, Egypt
In 2009, DIBD conducted a comprehensive market study of the potential for doing business at the Base of the Pyramid in Egypt. The findings from this study were presented in March 2010 at a Base of the Pyramid conference in Cairo arranged jointly by the Embassy of Denmark in Cairo and Sustainable Business Consulting (SBC), an Egyptian consultancy firm.
More than 200 people attended the conference, most of which represented Egyptian companies.
The conference gave the audience a picture of the business potential within areas such as distributing quality food products to rural areas, supplying health care equipment to existing health facilities, developing water purification units for private households, establishing waste management systems and much more.
Unknown opportunities
It came as a big surprise to many that these areas, which apparently hold substantial business opportunities, were highly neglected by Egyptian and foreign companies. As one participant expressed: “During your presentation, I wondered which country was actually on your slides. All of this is very new to me, and I believe that no Egyptian company has looked into the business potential at the Base of the Pyramid in Egypt before. Well done!”
This Base of the Pyramid conference and the study report made by DIBD is a major contribution to the trend of the increasing interest in the corporate sector to investigate the business potential at the BOP in Egypt.