Electronic payment gateway e-finance, along with the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), are working on defining electronic collections and possible ways of cooperation with the non-banking financial sector, Chairperson of e-finance Ibrahim Sarhan said.
He added that EGP 1.6trn transactions were conducted through e-finance since its inception. Over the past few years, the company has been able to double its returns on investment, which has been the topic of its celebration of the 15th anniversary.
The company was able to conduct studies with each of the two parties, and the studies concluded that e-finance would handle the government’s payments and fee collections.
The sector did not previously have any laws or regulation, but with the cooperation of e-finance, the CBE, and the Ministry of Finance, the sector will be better regulated, Sarhan said.
Recently, the government chose e-finance among its initial public offering programme, which comes in line with the company’s strategy to increase its capital.
Sarhan said the company’s efforts helped 20 million citizens switch from cash into e-payments, explaining that the company is an important pillar in Egypt’s financial inclusion efforts.
He added that the company’s subsidiary e-cards focuses more on payment cards, like Meeza and MasterCard, while e-aswaq focuses on electronic commerce, and cooperates with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Bank of Egypt to create an electronic market for the real estate sector.
He said the company has a plan to expand in Africa, and that the Egyptian market is an attractive destination for expansion.
Due to its strong infrastructure, the company is ready to transform into a digital bank with plans to continue cooperating with other companies to enter into micro finance and nano finance.
Sahar said that digital transformation needs great cooperation between many parties, with the state facilitating all the processes. He noted that most of the entities that would cooperate with banks in digital transformation are operators.
