Khaled Bassiouny, head of the Financial Inclusion Department at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), said that financial inclusion has been a top priority for the CBE in recent years, to support economic growth and achieve sustainable development goals amid Egypt’s 2030 vision.
This came during a roundtable organized by the Ministry of Social Solidarity in cooperation with the Central Bank of Egypt, to develop a strategy for social responsibility.
During the meeting, Bassiouny explained that many steps were taken in this context, as the CBE launched a financial inclusion sector, to coordinate at all levels with the aim of unifying efforts to enhance financial inclusion, especially since the issuance of the main indicators of financial inclusion effectively contributes to a good understanding of the Egyptian market and the behaviour of the Egyptian market and citizens, which helps to develop policies that support their economic empowerment.
He added that the financial inclusion strategy 2022-2025 was formulated, based on the results of the field survey of financial services, which was carried out on a representative sample of individuals and medium, small and micro enterprises “the formal and informal sector”, in cooperation with the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, and with technical support from the European Union and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), which reflects the strategic partnership with development partners.
He said that the latest indicators showed a significant increase in financial inclusion rates, achieving a growth of 115% over the past 6 years, as the total number of citizens who have accounts that enable them to conduct financial transactions, which include accounts in banks, Egypt Post, or phone wallets, reached 36.8 million citizens, equivalent to 56.2% of the total citizens (16 years and over).
He pointed out that there was a rise in the number of women who own financial accounts, reaching 16 million women in 2021, with a growth rate of 171% from 2016.
