Mohamed Maait: “My Father Was a Guard—I Sold Sugarcane Juice at Night”

In a deeply personal and widely resonant account, Mohamed Maait—former Egyptian finance minister and current head of the Arab Group at the International Monetary Fund—challenged prevailing assumptions about elite public officials by recounting his early life without privilege, influence, or patronage.

Roots in humility

Maait disclosed during an appearance on the “Critical Questions” podcast that his father served as a security guard—a “ghafir”—at a contracting company. After graduating from the Faculty of Commerce in 1984, Maait took on two jobs simultaneously, including nighttime work selling sugarcane juice at a juice shop to meet family financial obligations.

Modest ambitions, divine will

The former minister stated that his earliest aspirations extended no further than securing a simple job that would allow him to rent an apartment and marry. “I never dreamed of becoming a minister—not even once,” he said. “It was God’s will and my parents’ prayers that made it possible.”

A mother’s final witness

Maait recalled with deep emotion the moment he took the constitutional oath as finance minister—an occasion attended by his late mother just days before her death. He emphasized that “patronage does not endure, but sincere effort does.”