The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), in collaboration with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), launched an online portal for managing mobile phone wallet accounts.
Through this online portal, clients can check any of their electronic wallets using their mobile phone number or terminate their subscription for free without the need to visit the service provider offices, according to the CBE.
CBE deputy governor Rami Abul-Naga that the move is in line with the state’s strategy of promoting financial inclusion and shifting towards a digital economy that is less reliant on cash.
Abul-Naga also noted that the online portal is a new addition to Egypt’s national payment system Meeza that is managed by the Egyptian Banks Company, adding that it will have a positive impact on the mobile phone as payment service market as well as digital payments in general.
Ehab Nasr, the CBE’s assistant sub governor for payment systems and the business technology sector, said that mobile phone wallet services have improved significantly.
Mobile phone wallet accounts grew by 27 percent in 2021 to record 25 million wallets compared to 2020, according to Nasr.
Nasr also said that 227 million transactions were made through such digital payment instruments in 2021, growing by about 100 percent compared to 2020, with a total value of EGP 233 billion, which represents 160 percent growth compared to 2020.
In April 2021, the CBE approved new regulations for mobile wallet services, including digital lending and saving services in real time, allowing the transferring of funds directly between mobile wallets and bank accounts at various banks.
In September of the same year, the CBE started to issue licenses for contactless mobile payments, allowing clients to use their cards to pay retailers through sellers’ or merchants’ mobile phones or other smart devices, which would be used as electronic point-of-sale machines.
