How to Register as a Government Supplier in Egypt

Legal framework and regulatory authority

Public procurement in Egypt is governed by Law No. 182 of 2018 on the Regulation of Contracts Concluded by Public Entities. Article (1) of the Promulgation Articles states that the law applies to entities included in the State's General Budget, units of the State's administrative apparatus, local administration units, public service and economic authorities, and affiliated special funds. Article (2) provides that the law does not prejudice Law No. 5 of 2015 concerning the preference of Egyptian products in government contracts, nor the Investment Law No. 72 of 2017. Article (3) repeals the former Tenders and Auctions Law No. 89 of 1998. Article (4) mandates the Minister of Finance to issue Executive Regulations within six months from the date the law enters into force; these regulations set out the detailed procedures, documentation requirements, committee structures, financial guarantees, and operational timelines required for compliance. The Executive Regulations have since been issued and build an integrated framework with the law. Article (2) of the law states that its application aims to regulate procedures for planning and executing public contracts, achieve efficiency in public expenditure, enhance governance, and ensure free competition, equal opportunity, and integrity.

The electronic portal and the GAGS

Article (1) of Law No. 182 of 2018 defines the Public Procurement Portal as the electronic website designated on the Internet for publishing data and information related to public contracts, and the procedures related thereto. The General Authority for Government Services (GAGS) administers the portal. The portal publishes tenders, contractual plans, bidding documents, and award notices. Under Article (170) of the Executive Regulations, the electronic system is designed to support secure electronic bid submission and electronic bid opening, which administrative entities must use once the system is completed and operating regularly. Article (20) of the law requires all transactions to be published on the portal, except where national security requires otherwise; public tenders must also be announced in a widely circulated daily newspaper.

Company prerequisites

Law No. 182 of 2018 refers to the commercial register and tax card as part of the bidder's identification data. The law defines Works Contracting as activities included within the classification issued by the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors, approved by the Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, and notified to the General Authority for Government Services for publication on the Public Procurement Portal. Administrative entities verify legal capacity, technical capability, and financial standing through the documents specified in the tender notice and the Executive Regulations. Article (25) of Law No. 182 of 2018 requires bidders to disclose any subcontracting arrangements, including the subcontractors' particulars and experience, the items to be awarded to them,, within the limits set by the administrative entity in the tender documents. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, foreign firms are required to work with Egyptian commercial agents to bid on most government tenders.

Registering a supplier account

Under Article (85) of Law No. 182 of 2018, an administrative entity may not contract with a supplier unless the supplier has registered or updated its data on the Public Procurement Portal; the entity verifies and approves that data, which includes commercial or professional registration numbers and tax card numbers. Suppliers should keep their registration data current; outdated information may disqualify a bid or delay evaluation.

Procurement methods and bidding

Law No. 182 of 2018 introduces several procurement methods. These include the public tender, which Article (7) makes the default method, other methods requiring a reasoned decision of the competent authority; the limited tender, restricted to a preselected or prequalified group of suppliers where the nature of the requirement justifies narrowing the field; the local tender, used where the value does not exceed four million Egyptian Pounds and restricted to bidders whose activity is within the governorate where the contract is performed (Article 59); the two-stage tender, for complex projects where bidders submit a technical proposal in the first stage and only technically qualified bidders proceed to pricing in the second stage; and the framework agreement, which sets general terms for subsequent specific contracts without agreeing on final quantities at the outset. The law also introduces the Points-Based Evaluation System, whereby technical quality and price criteria are jointly applied through defined weights and minimum acceptance thresholds, resulting in overall scores for each bid. Under Article (163) of the Executive Regulations, tender documents should exempt medium, small, and micro enterprises from requirements of previous similar works and prior years' audited financial statements where the nature of the procedure does not require them; under Article (59) of the law, MSMEs in local tenders not exceeding two million Egyptian Pounds may submit an undertaking in lieu of the provisional guarantee. Article (84) requires administrative entities to conduct procedures electronically as they are automated on the unified system.

Local preference and remedies

Article (2) of Law No. 182 of 2018 preserves Law No. 5 of 2015. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Egyptian domestic contractors are accorded priority if their bids do not exceed the lowest foreign bid by more than 15 percent. Additionally, governmental entities must set specifications requiring the Egyptian component to represent no less than 40 percent of the project's estimated value, subject to exceptions and exempted entities listed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Law No. 182 of 2018 also establishes a Complaints Office for administrative review of procurement disputes. Any concerned party may file a written complaint with the administrative entity, with a copy to the Complaints Office, which is affiliated with the Minister of Finance; time limits are set by a decision of the Prime Minister (Article 5). For sector-specific contracts, such as those administered by the Unified Procurement Authority for healthcare, or for donor-funded projects governed by multilateral rules, different registration and bidding procedures may apply.

Finding Egyptian public tenders

Bidanga aggregates public tenders from Egypt and other African countries, updated daily. After registering on the national portal, suppliers can monitor new opportunities on Bidanga's Egypt country page. Rules differ elsewhere on the continent; see the guide to African government procurement portals by country for other jurisdictions.