Nazif was born in Cairo. President Hosni Mubarak invited him to form the new government on 9 July 2004. Prime Minister Nazif was sworn in together with fourteen new cabinet ministers on 14 July 2004. He received immediate parliamentary backing through a formal vote of confidence. He was the youngest serving prime minister of Egypt since the founding of the Republic and the second youngest prime minister in the history of modern Egypt. His cabinet was known to be mainly composed of technocrats and well educated neo-liberals. Having come to power replacing outgoing Prime Minister Atef Obeid who resigned at an emergency cabinet meeting, prompting the collapse of the four-year-old 34-member cabinet, pressure to undergo reforms was ripe. Nazif had served as the Minister for Communications and Information Technology in the Obeid Government. Before that, Nazif was a professor in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. However, following the Egyptian Revolution, President Mubarak announced in his first appearance since the protests began that he had asked Nazif and his government to resign, effectively sacking one of the modern Republic's longest-serving governments. Ahmed Shafik, who had been Minister of Civil Aviation, was appointed to replace Nazif as Prime Minister on 29 January 2011. He has been held in custody since April 10, 2011, following the Egyptian revolution of 2011 that incarcerated all of the governing elite, on allegations of wasting public money, corruption and allowing others to profit, pending a court trial. On May 4, 2016, a final verdict by the highest court of appeal in Egypt acquitted Nazif of all charges of corruption. During his tenure as the first Minister for Communications and Information Technology he was credited with establishing Egypt's free internet connectivity plan as well as improving public access to computers through low-price computers sold by private producers through the Egyptian Telecommunications Company, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry for Communications and Information Technology. Nazif's successor in the ministry of communications and longtime friend Tarek Kamel has collaborated strongly to enhance the Egyptian role in international IT markets and improve local infrastructure to support Egypt's exponentially growing demand for IT applications in everyday life. Nazif is also credited with helping to found the first computer engineering department in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, leading the National Identity Card project and computerizing it, and establishing the Smart Village. "I love to build and that's where I derive my personal satisfaction" - 2010 and "Outsourcing is nature's way of reversing the brain drain" - 2001 are famous quotes of his. He has received Egypt's First Degree Medal of Sciences and Art.
Nazif resides in a suburban complex with his two sons. He is the son of former wealthy sailor who owned a sea shipping company, Mahmoud Nazif. His grandfather Mohammed Bey Nazif was undersecretary of Ministry of Health in the time of King Farouk.
On January 18, 2010, it was officially announced that Nazif will marry Zeinab Zaki, vice president of Information Technology Industry Development Agency, in February 2010.
