The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) held a workshop attended by 60 representatives of the Export Development Authority (EDA), members of export councils, chambers of commerce, business associations and many companies working with Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries to familiarise them with the electronic link system between Egyptian banks and African member countries of COMESA.
Deputy governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) for economic research, Naglaa Al-Nozahy, said that the new system will play a role in supporting and developing economic relations between Egypt and African countries and facilitating the transfer of funds between participating countries in order to increase trade exchange.
She added that the system reduces the external banking fees of correspondent banks, reduces the time period for settlement of transactions, and increases confidence among customers as a result of the participation of central banks.
Hany Omar, assistant director of payment systems department at the CBE, said that this system is managed and supervised by the COMESA clearing house. Each country participates through its central bank, while each central bank carries out payments for its commercial banks in its country, for the benefits of other banks in COMESA system.
The first phase of the system was launched in May 2017. There are nine members in it so far: Egypt, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Rwanda, Mauritius, Uganda, Swaziland, and Malawi.
The other COMESA member countries are expected to join the system in the near future, namely Sudan, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Madagascar, and Burundi.
