• Last August, Algeria shifts to Friday and Saturday weekends, from the Thursday and Friday weekends
• The other weekend break was denying the country up to $1 billion each year

It is six months after the new weekend schedules were effected in Algiers but looks like the city is now happier and conducting more business, especially on the international front.

Last August, Algeria shifted to Friday and Saturday weekends, from the Thursday and Friday weekends decreed by president Houari Boumediene in 1976 as an assertion of the country’ Arab and Islamic identity.

After a lot of pressures from traders, president Abdelaziz Bouteflika changed the weekend schedule, to pace up trade in a country that has over relied on oil and gas exports. The presidential decision was seen as a compromise to facilitate international trade to reduce over reliance on oil exports, something that the Algiers government has been pushing to tilt the current fortunes. But Friday as prayer day, remains the official off day for all. 

Before the shift, traders routinely complained of heavy losses for working only three days a week because up to 60 per cent of Algeria trade is being transacted with Europe, USA and China, the odd weekend break was denying the country up to around $1 billion each year.

"It was imperative to align our weekend with the rest of world," argued economist Abderrahmane Mebtoul from Oran University, west of Algeria. "The country could not afford to continue losing money and remain economically isolated from world trade and business".     

For Algerians- up to 99 per cent of whom are Muslims- the new weekends offer them an easy chance to go out without the strains of Friday prayer hours. On Saturdays, public facilities remain open to the public.

With customs service closed on Thursday and Friday and the banks Saturday, Algiers came to a stop for three days; no transactions, no businesses. Foreign crew members of ships docking in Algerian ports took their weekly break on Saturday and Sunday. That left only three business days a week. The August alignment has changed the pace, even fortunes in Algiers.

New delights

Naziha Benferhat, who works as secretary in a public owned enterprise, was delighted to learn about the new week end system. "we are able to spend the weekend together with family," she says .

Amine Belaid , an entrepreneur who invested in international trade is happier with the new arrangement. "The queue has shortened by half, no more waiting for four days to get your business documents approved and goods delivered. My partner abroad is more satisfied with the speed that new system has ushered"

Observing the week end system in the Arab world, Algeria joins 13 other Arab countries which adopted Friday and Saturday days off,  only Saudia Arabia remains fixed to Thursday and Friday week end,  whereas in Maghreb region, Morocco and Tunisia have weekend on Saturday and Sunday, aligned with European countries.

"The weekend issue is a sensitive issue in the Arab world’. says states sociologist Ahmed Benamar adding that it touches religious practices, political tendencies and economic constraints that are never easy to balance.