Significance of Adopting Digital Financial Technologies in Egypt

Egypt has a growing population of more than 100 million, an increase of more than 7 million since the 2017 census. With this population growth, the country faces significant development challenges as its large and growing population is unbanked and underserved in financial services. Hence, Egypt exerts more efforts to promote and deliver affordable digital financial inclusion to expand its financial services outreach by encouraging private sector intervention. The private sector could contribute effectively to financial technology adoption through smartphones and instant payment applications. The Central Bank of Egypt has established an online Fintech portal (Fintech Egypt) to promote financial inclusion through digitalising start-up businesses and investors’ financial corporations. The country’s primary goal is to put all the financial institutions, providers, and users in an effective Fintech ecosystem, make financial services available for the Egyptians and promote financial inclusion through digital financial access. Another fintech initiative by the public sector is developing a new e-payments system for domestic use within the country’s territories. The central bank regulates this new e-payments system with the Egyptian national banks. To make the e-payments system effective, regulatory law number 18 was enacted in 2019. These public- and private-sector fintech initiatives are paving the way for Egypt’s adoption and implementation of financial technology. This technology adoption is expected to positively impact the life of the country’s unbanked and financially unreachable citizens by enhancing financial inclusion. This article elaborates on why digital financial inclusion is important for Egypt. Digital financial initiatives are expected to enable financial services to reach unreachable remote areas overcoming the physical and financial infrastructure barriers, particularly for 70% of disadvantaged citizens.