Egypt’s central bank leads financial inclusion efforts for marginalized

This article was originally published on Africa Report on August 19, 2024.

In this exclusive interview, CBE Governor Abdalla share insights into Egypt’s journey towards financial inclusion, highlighting the successes achieved and the challenges encountered along the way. He also elaborates on the policies and regulatory frameworks crucial in fostering an enabling environment for financial inclusion, with a specific focus on PWDs.

The Africa Report: Looking at the progress achieved over the past few years, Egypt has emerged as a leader in financial inclusion, particularly concerning financial inclusion for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). Can you expand on some of the successes and challenges Egypt has undergone on this journey?

The financial industry has witnessed a significant transformation. Topics such as financial inclusion, consumer protection and inclusive green finance have reached the forefront of financial regulators’ priorities, especially in developing economies. Egypt stands out as a pioneer in advancing financial inclusion, looking to leapfrog into the future, adopting international best practices where applicable, and taking the initiative to pave the way in unexplored areas.

Believing in the tremendous impact of financially including all citizens on the financial stability of the country and aiming to enhance the financial wellbeing and resilience of the population, the CBE has issued a financial inclusion strategy for 2022 – 2025 that identifies key segments of the population who had been marginalized and relatively excluded from the formal financial sector, to focus on in a comprehensive and holistic manner. These segments include women, youth and PWDs, which the CBE has placed a huge emphasis on from a regulatory and guidance perspective.

The CBE has determined that disproportionate effort is needed to overhaul the banking sector to meet the needs of PWDs.

Can you elaborate on the policies and regulatory environment needed to drive the financial inclusion of PWDs?

Supporting the financial inclusion of PWDs required a holistic approach, starting with paving the way through the development of an enabling environment through a set of policies and regulations to encourage and empower the banking sector to serve this segment. This started in 2021 with the first set of regulations enabling the access of financial products and services for PWDs to be formally included. All new branches and a minimum of 10% of existing banking sector branches and ATMs were mandated to be appropriately designed and equipped to serve PWDs, such as: • Application forms in braille • Customer service representatives fluent in sign language • Adopting tiered KYC (know your customer) regulation to allow banking accounts to be opened with a national ID • Simplifications and facilitation measures to drive their inclusion

The CBE also launched an annual dedicated financial inclusion event for PWDs in December. During this period, banks are permitted to conduct commercial activities outside their branches, aiming to raise financial awareness and promote inclusion, by allowing customers to open accounts without fees or minimum balances.

How has the banking sector reacted and responded to these developments?

The sector has complied with the required accessibility requirements in their branches and ATMs, surpassing the percentage defined by the CBE, adopting a single window system to ensure swift and convenient service to clients, as well as taking steps to enhance the services provided to these clients, depending on their disability.

Around 9,300 employees have received training in sign language to better serve and assist clients with hearing or speech impairments. Concerning visually impaired clients, account opening and other product application forms are available in braille, and signature stamps and fingerprints are accepted as an alternative to a signature, for their convenience, across all banking procedures.

Banks have also taken steps to enable screen reading software to be used with their electronic channels and to issue debit and credit cards to clients, upon their request provided that these cards are appropriate and easy to use, taking into consideration availing a special design for the cards by using prominent letters and/or numbers that facilitate the identification of the card by the customer.

Audio and sign language recordings are also required for information provided on the banks’ websites and social media sites, as well as the availability of home visits to PWDs by branch employees to provide banking services.

Though more time is needed to ensure that these services are accessed by clients on a broader scale, these measures will allow for further developments and enhancements to be made by the banks to empower PWDs financially and serve them with their convenience and needs in mind.