Only 20% of ration-card holders in Port Said have registered within the Supply Ministry’s trial of the Unified Card system, a source familiar with the program told Al Manassa, as the ministry prepares to expand the rollout to other governorates next month.
The Port Said Supply Directorate extended the deadline until early February 2026, giving residents more time to update their information, while Supply Minister Sherif Farouk said at the end of last month the ministry was ready to expand the system to Ismailia and then Luxor starting in February.
The Unified Card is part of the government’s digital transformation plans. It aims to combine several state services, including subsidized bread and ration goods, comprehensive health insurance services, postal services, and pensions, into a single smart card instead of multiple cards. The Supply Ministry began a pilot in Port Said in July 2023.
“The trial revealed major problems for citizens who grew up in orphanages and have birth certificates with no father or mother details,” a second source familiar with the file at the ministry told Al Manassa. They said the program has no clear mechanism for such cases and still asks applicants to enter parents’ data, which blocks completion of updates.
Asked about the apparent contradiction between pilot problems in Port Said and plans to expand elsewhere, the first source, who requested anonymity, said any rollout in Ismailia and Luxor depends on resolving all Port Said issues, especially data updates on the Digital Egypt platform.
Many citizens have struggled to update their data ahead of card issuance, prompting the Supply Ministry to contact the Communications Ministry to request changes to the platform’s update program, the second source said. Key issues involve civil registry records, including errors in father and mother data that appear when extracting a family record, and cases where the address on a citizen’s national ID does not match the governorate where they receive their ration allocation.
The second source added that the Unified Card would change how subsidies are disbursed because it is a secured payments card that beneficiaries cannot leave with a merchant or baker, or share its PIN, since it is linked to postal and health insurance systems. They said this would reduce waste, prevent subsidy leakage, and help ensure support reaches those entitled to it.
For years, the ministry has tried to tackle the practice of citizens leaving ration cards with bakery owners, who then draw subsidized bread and sell it at market prices in exchange for an agreed cash amount. This practice also occurs in the ration-goods system, sources say.
The ministry imposed penalties, starting with a warning to the cardholder the first time, followed by permanently stopping the card the second time.
A subsidized bakery owner or ration retailer who collects citizens’ ration cards is suspended from ration activity for a month. For bakeries, this includes not operating and losing flour allocations, and for retailers, it includes being barred from receiving ration goods for a month. If repeated, the penalty is a complete halt to operation.
