Tamer Elgamil ·
Egypt's seven licensed gold funds held 9.2 billion pounds for 306,500 savers by June 2026. A shop charges you once at the door. A fund charges a little every day you stay.
A saver in their twenties who just got a raise has two doors into gold this month, and they take your money in opposite ways. A shop charges you once, at the counter. A licensed gold fund charges you a small amount every single day you stay. Which one costs less depends almost entirely on how long you intend to hold, and most comparisons never mention that.
The Financial Regulatory Authority publishes the numbers each quarter, so this is not guesswork.
By the end of June 2026, Egypt's seven licensed gold funds held 9.2 billion pounds in assets across roughly 306,500 investors. Add the country's two newer silver funds and the precious-metal total reaches 9.35 billion pounds and about 329,000 clients. Three months earlier that client count was 289,000.
The make-up of that base is the interesting part. Individuals account for 71 percent of investors, institutions the other 29 percent. Across the investor base, 39.4 percent are aged 20 to 30, and another 32 percent are aged 30 to 40. Among individual investors, more than eight in ten are men.
You will see "from ten pounds" in a lot of coverage. It is worth reading carefully, because it does not mean what people assume.
Ten pounds was the price of one unit in a fund's subscription prospectus. The minimum subscription was 100 units, so the smallest ticket was actually 1,000 pounds. Other funds set their minimum at ten units instead.
Units have also not stayed at ten pounds. One fund's unit was quoted around 18.50 pounds by mid-2025. So before you subscribe, check two separate things: the fund's current unit value, and its own stated minimum.
The mechanics are simple enough. The fund buys and holds gold, then issues tradable units. Each unit's net asset value tracks the metal's price in pounds, minus the fund's running costs. You subscribe and redeem through a bank or a brokerage, not a shop. Some funds settle a redemption in actual grams rather than cash.
Those units move with the metal, and sharply. Egyptian gold fund unit prices fell by up to 6.8 percent over one month to late July 2026, then rose about 12 percent over the month to late August.
Physical gold puts its whole cost at the two ends of the trade.
Going in, you pay a making charge plus VAT. The Tax Authority's accounting average for 21-karat is 64.41 pounds a gram plus 9.02 in VAT, though shops commonly quote 100 to 200 a gram on ordinary jewellery. Going out, you meet the spread: on 17 September 2026 Egyptian shops were buying 21-karat roughly 65 pounds a gram below their selling price, a little over one percent.
A fund has no making charge at all. Instead it deducts an annual management fee, published in its own prospectus, continuously from the unit's value.
That difference in shape matters more than either number does alone. A one-time charge at the door barely registers across twenty years and hurts badly if you trade in and out. A daily deduction behaves the exact opposite way. So the useful question is not which product is cheaper. It is how long the money is staying.
A fund is licensed and supervised by the Financial Regulatory Authority. It publishes a daily net asset value, and several funds will hand back physical grams on redemption, which points to real bullion behind the units.
Even so, that is more links in the chain than metal in your own hand. A custodian, an administrator and a redemption process all stand between you and the gold. Physical gold has no counterparty beyond the shop you bought from, but authenticity and safekeeping become entirely your problem.
This one deserves care, because the schools do not agree.
Investment gold, meaning bars, coins, the gold pound and stored jewellery, is counted by all four Sunni schools once it clears the nisab. Jewellery in regular personal use is where they part company. The Hanafi school includes it. The Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools generally exempt it within customary limits.
A fund unit raises a further question on top of that. It is a security representing gold, not gold in your hand, and contemporary scholars have not settled on one answer. If zakat matters to your choice, resolve it with someone you trust before subscribing. Our zakat guidance lays out where the schools differ.
Physical gold can be sold at the nearest shop the same day, minus the spread, on any day of the week. A fund redemption moves through a bank or brokerage during trading hours and settles on its own cycle. That is rarely instant. For a household that might need cash on a specific evening, the gap is not theoretical.
Neither product is the correct one. They suit different holding periods and different reasons for owning gold, and nothing here says which describes you.
What you can do is measure before you choose. Price a few grams on our calculator. Compare today's 21-karat rate against a fund's published unit value. Then look at how the price has moved over a stretch as long as the one you actually plan to hold for.
Seven, according to the Financial Regulatory Authority's figures for the end of June 2026, holding 9.2 billion pounds across roughly 306,500 investors. Adding the country's two newer silver funds takes the precious-metal total to 9.35 billion pounds and about 329,000 clients.
Not quite. Ten pounds was the price of a single unit in one fund's prospectus, but the minimum subscription was 100 units, so the smallest ticket was 1,000 pounds. Other funds set a ten-unit minimum, and unit values have since moved well above ten pounds, so check the fund's current unit value and its own stated minimum.
No. There is no upfront making charge. Each fund instead deducts its own annual management fee continuously from the unit's net asset value, at a rate published in its own prospectus rather than one figure that applies to every fund.
Not necessarily, and the schools already differ on physical gold. Investment gold is counted by all four Sunni schools once it clears the nisab, but jewellery in regular personal use is disputed: the Hanafi school includes it while the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools generally exempt it within customary limits. A fund unit is a security representing gold rather than gold in hand, and contemporary scholars have not settled on one answer, so check guidance you trust before assuming any single treatment applies.