Nevine Gamea, Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry and Executive Director of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), has announced that owners of small enterprises financed by direct lending from the agency can now pay loan instalments online through several companies.
These companies include Waqty, Amwal, and Tal2a, with payments possible through more than 15,000 service outlets available across the country belonging to these companies.
Gamea said that this step comes in accordance with the state’s directives to digitise various services provided to the public to facilitate these operations and save time and effort. This aspect has been gaining increasing relevance with the emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the precautionary measures taken to prevent the virus’ spread.
The minister stressed that MSMEDA is continuing to implement its plan, which aims to provide various financial and non-financial services electronically.
This, in turn, allows the agency to expand its customer base and reach clients in various regions. It also ensures transparency in these transactions to maintain client rights.
She explained that MSMEDA currently provides a number of electronic services to enterprise owners. They include applying online via the agency’s website for an enterprise classification certificate to benefit from the Project Development Law No 152 of 2020.
It also allows applications for entrepreneurship training courses, via the Small Enterprises platform, in addition to receiving various marketing services provided by the agency.
For his part, Yasser Helmy, Head of the Information Systems Sector at MSMEDA, said that the agency is working to develop an integrated system to provide its services electronically.
Payment channels will be completed to collect loan instalments, in cooperation with other companies working in this field. MSMEDA is also coordinating with e-payment platform Khalis, to make its services available through its mobile phone application.
Helmy pointed out that direct lending clients of the agency can call its hotline 16733 to find out more details on how to pay through these companies.
