The first of 15,000 Egyptian civil servants have started packing up their dusty files in preparation for the move out of the infamous Mugamma building.

For just over half a century the 1,200-room behemoth has dominated central Cairo with imposing Soviet-era architecture, while inside officialdom has tried the public’s patience with red tape and obfuscation. Completed just as the then president Gamal Abdel Nasser began centralising the state, it has become a monument to Egypt’s impenetrable bureaucracy.