Al-Ahly Momkn for electronic payments signed a cooperation protocol with Lead Foundation, a non-profit microfinance institution, to collect instalments and disburse funds for micro-projects, which Lead finances.
Ahmed Enayet, Managing Director and CEO of Al-Ahly Momkn, said that cooperating with Lead gives its clients the ease of paying instalments and disbursing the funds allocated for financing their projects, through Al-Ahly Momkn’s network, which covers all parts of the country.
Enayet added that the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), through Al-Ahly Capital, acquired 75% of the company in April 2021. The issued capital is currently EGP 140m, and there are plans to increase this amount. Enayet noted that the company obtained about EGP 6.3bn from the total market in 2021, which is 10 times what it achieved in 2020, indicating that the electronic payment market in Egypt is still capable of growing at great rates.
He stressed that the company has developed a strategy to triple the amount of proceeds achieved this year, so the company decided to develop an ambitious strategy to develop the technological infrastructure. This comes within the framework of the financial inclusion plan of the Egyptian state. NBE as well as its investment arm Al-Ahly Capital, are following in its footsteps.
Karim Fanous, Executive Director of Lead Foundation, said that the Foundation is always seeking to serve its customers and meet their needs. “In pursuit of achieving financial inclusion, we have provided many ways to disburse and collect funds, so we decided to choose Al-Ahly Momkn to be our partner in this mission,” he added.
Fanous added that the foundation partners with its clients, introducing a professional concept to understand the client’s activity, and provide proper microfinance services in transparency and through simple means of communication. He noted that the foundation aims to directly reach the segments of society that need this empowerment, such as the poor and low-income small business owners, especially women.
“We are currently serving more than 200,000 active clients through 31 branches in nine governorates, and over the past years we have served over one million clients and seek to expand and serve more clients during the coming period, so that Lead will continue as one of the leading microfinance institutions,” he said.
Mohab Gamal, Head of the Commercial Sector and Business Development at Al-Ahly Momkn said that the last two years have witnessed a great demand from citizens to use electronic payments, due to the pandemic, which imposed on the world a forced social distancing, as the electronic payments sector has grown in an unprecedented way.
Gamal added that Al-Ahly Momkn will expand its services to all sectors, especially ones that rely on electronic payments, noting that over the coming period, Al-Ahly will enter into a set of strategic partnerships with large entities in various sectors.