Rami Aboulnaga, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, has said that the number of emerging companies operating in the field of financial technology increased to 177 in 2022, pointing out that these companies attracted about $800m investments.
Aboulnaga delivered a speech on behalf of Hassan Abdullah, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, at the Seamless North Africa conference. He said: “The conference is a significant step in raising awareness on fintech and its importance in supporting digital transformation and financial inclusion.”
He announced the release of the new edition of the “Financial Technology Landscape” report, which includes several positive indicators in the Egyptian fintech market during 2022.
Aboulnaga said that the report included a comprehensive map of all financial technology developments in the Egyptian market and the most important developments in financial technology.
Online banking transactions amounted to about EGP 3trn over the past 6 months, according to Aboulnaga.
He added that the number of national “Meeza” cards increased to 33 million cards, while the number of mobile phone wallets increased to 30 million wallets.
Aboulnaga revealed that customers made 20.3 million transactions through the instant “InstaPay” application, at a value of EGP 112.7bn, within a year of launching the application only.
He also announced the launch of the third cohort of the Regulatory Sandbox, which will focus on peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. The Regulatory Sandbox provides a structured testing environment that allows FinTech entrepreneurs to experiment with their innovative applications for a specified period, according to agreed standards.
Aboulnaga confirmed that the Central Bank’s strategy depends on providing financial services that are more accessible to remote areas and achieving comprehensiveness, and providing an incubating environment and a legislative framework that supports these services, in addition to providing the necessary demand for these services.
He said that our strategy aims to transform Egypt into a regional center for financial inclusion, shift towards a society less dependent on cash, raise economic growth rates, and reduce the repercussions of global crises.
He further stated that CBE has issued regulations for licensing and regulatory frameworks for digital banks. This marks the emergence of a new era of digital banking services, allowing these banks to provide their services to customers digitally without the need for physical branches. This will positively impact their ability to reach more customers and their pricing policies.
The conference witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Central Bank of Egypt and its Nigerian counterpart to exchange experiences in the fields of FinTech, innovation, digital payments and financial inclusion. The agreement was signed by Aboulnaga, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt on behalf of the Egyptian side and Aisha Ahmed, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, on behalf of the Nigerian side.
