Aladdin Elsgier, prince of e-commerce
Hailing from Libya's capital, Tripoli, 24-year-old Aladdin Elsgier is an ambitious young man. In his podcast, Tejara, he introduces listeners to young entrepreneurs with innovative projects in the field of e-commerce.
Profile by Bérengère Merlot.
There is a feeling of confidence in the air. Yasmine Freties, a young Libyan from Derna, a city in the north of the country, talks with Aladdin Elsgier for almost an hour and 40 minutes for this first episode of Tejara (which means commerce in Arabic). They chat about the fact that she has become a well-known company director with her photography studio Flamingo Studio. And about Derna, from where she was forced to flee following the terrible floods that hit the city during the night of 10 to 11 September 2023, as a result of Storm Daniel.
Initially, the podcast was called Aladdin Asks. Aladdin faces the camera and puts questions to his guest. Four episodes have now been filmed and viewed 300,000 times. With Tejara, the emphasis is on Aladdin’s passion for e-commerce (Editor’s note: the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet).
An influencer in Libya in this area, he interviews young entrepreneurs who share practical information and inspirational ideas. His meeting with Yasmine took place in December 2022, in one of the oldest cities in the Libyan desert, Gadamis, as he is one of the organisers of a boot camp. This is run by the association Rawahel (the guiding camel) to encourage 50 promising young Libyan entrepreneurs. As a distinguished company director, Yasmine is making her mark as a woman in a male-dominated field. After the floods in Derna, Aladdin thought it was time to hear from her.
Her project is good. It looks at commerce through the link between investors and entrepreneurs, which allows young people to learn and gain success, says Fadel Aljebali, another Libyan participant of CFI’s Intajat Jadida project.
A geek with a passion
Aladdin does not need to rub a magic lamp to make a genie appear. He has blossomed from a self-proclaimed shy and geeky little boy into a well-known professional in the field of e-commerce. He opened up to others and to the world and never stopped asking questions when, at the age of 13, he joined the World Organization of the Scout Movement, which gave him many opportunities to travel in Libya and other Arab countries.
He also developed leadership and communication skills. He then joined the Electronics Technology College in Tripoli in 2018–2019, which specialises in information and communication, and gained his education through e-commerce courses online.
Today, Aladdin heads up IT company MNSAT ALALEM (which means international platform). He creates apps and software for companies in the fields of IT, marketing and e-commerce. A Tunisian colleague from the Intajat Jadida project, Wafaa Maali, smiles when she says: Aladdin is kind and very confident. He is focused, ambitious and passionate about what he does.
So what’s next? Aladdin plans to put his well-chosen questions to other key figures in e-commerce in Libya and the Arab world, creating a total of five episodes.