The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said that most of the banks operating in the Egyptian market have adjusted their products and services to suit people with disabilities, in accordance with the CBE instructions of September 2021, within the framework of the financial inclusion plan in Egypt’s Vision 2030.
This comes in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to facilitate access to services to people with disabilities in various fields, particularly banking.
The Central Bank stated that banks have achieved an unprecedented leap in facilitating access to financial services to people with disabilities in accordance with the instructions of the Central Bank, which included adjusting infrastructure, providing technological and digital solutions, training human cadres, and amending internal policies and procedures to serve this segment.
It pointed out that in order to preserve the confidentiality of financial transactions for visually impaired people, banks have issued account opening forms, contracts, and requests for various banking products and services in Braille.
Banks have also equipped more than 10% of their existing branches, made effective structural modifications to them, and provided passages, signals, and special equipment to ensure facilitation for customers of people of determination when dealing with banks, and the application of the Egyptian engineering code was taken into account to design external spaces and buildings to suit the needs of people of determination. Providing ramps, designing roads and passages, having guiding signs, and car parking spaces when establishing new branches nationwide.
It added that emphasizing the importance of effective communication with customers with disabilities, banks have been keen to prepare and train specialized banking cadres, including more than 5,000 branch employees, on sign language, and to read the terms and conditions of contracts related to banking products and services for the blind customer to facilitate the provision of banking services to them and introduce them to them. In addition to providing a one-stop-shop service to quickly complete their access to banking services, speaking screens translated into sign language were also provided to display the terms and conditions of banking products within the branches, on the website of each bank, and on the banks’ social media pages.
Banks have also provided more than 4,000 ATMs equipped with appropriate lighting and keypads with Braille dots, and launched special programmes to motivate and encourage people with disabilities to benefit from various banking products such as loans, debit cards such as “Meeza” card, and credit cards.
Many banks have also made it possible to follow up on accounts via telephone after each transaction, and provide account statements in line with the requirements of people of determination, including, for example, printing in Braille or in the form of an Audio CD, and updating procedures and systems to accept stamps and fingerprints as an alternative to signing all procedures. Banking, and providing the possibility for bank employees to make home visits to people of determination to complete their banking services.
The Central Bank affirmed that these facilities represent an unprecedented success in providing banking services to people of determination in the Egyptian market, as part of the Central Bank’s continuous efforts to enhance financial inclusion and serve all segments of society with fairness and transparency.
