Financial transactions through digital channels in Egypt increased to about EGP 10trn, with an annual growth of 46%, according to Ehab Nasr, the Assistant Sub Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) for Payment Systems and Services.
On the sidelines of the Seamless North Africa 2023 conference, Nasr said that this increase reflects the Central Bank and all state agencies’ efforts to transform into a society less dependent on cash and to promote electronic transactions.
He pointed out that the number of mobile phone wallets increased to about 33 million, pointing to an increase in the number of monthly transactions that take place through those wallets to about 85 million, with total transactions of over EGP 100bn in June 2023, an increase of 150% over June 2022. It shows the citizens’ reliance on the service in his daily transactions.
According to Nasr, the number of InstaPay application users has increased to more than 3.8 million users, pointing out that the values of banking transactions that took place through this application, since its activation in March 2022 until the end of June 2023, amounted to about EGP 300bn, including more than EGP 250bn have been achieved during the last 6 months, which reflects the increased demand of citizens for the new service, which has achieved unprecedented success since its launch.
Last March, the Central Bank raised the maximum limit for a single transaction through the “InstaPay” application from EGP 50,000 to EGP 70,000 and the daily maximum limit was raised from EGP 60,000 to EGP 120,000 and the maximum limit for monthly transactions to EGP 400,000.
In a related context, Nasr revealed that the number of “Meeza” cards issued by banks has increased to more than 33 million cards, out of 58 million payment cards issued at the state level.
He added that the number of electronic points of sale increased from 68,000 machines in 2018 to reach more than one million points by the end of the first quarter of this year.
On Monday, the financial technology conference “Seamless North Africa” 2023, hosted by the Central Bank of Egypt, kicked off for two days.
The conference was inaugurated by Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, on behalf of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. The event witnessed the participation of Rami Abulnaga, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank; Nevine Kabbag, Minister of Social Solidarity; Gamal Negm, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank; Aisha Ahmed, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and over 4,000 officials from local, regional, and international banking and financial institutions.
The current edition of the conference is being held under the slogan “Gateway to Financial Technology in Africa and the Middle East”, with the participation of a number of central banks, in addition to 150 local and international experts, and more than 100 exhibitors from emerging financial technology companies.
