CBE: Mobile wallets reached 39M in 2023, finalizing contactless mobile payments infrastructure

The number of mobile wallet accounts in Egypt rose to 39.4 million in 2023, driven by consumer demand for easier financial transactions and various initiatives from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

By the end of September 2023, the total had reached 36.7 million, with 96.2 million transactions amounting to LE 11.64 billion, as explained in the CBE’s economic review for FY2023/2024.

As of September last year, approximately 760,000 "QR codes" or Request to Pay (R2P) transactions were made through mobile wallets, whether via apps, websites, or merchants.

The report also highlighted the CBE's progress in incorporating contactless payments through smartphones.

The CBE is in the final stages of developing the technical infrastructure for "tap on phone" payment systems and highlighted its board of directors’ approval of new regulations to introduce tokenization services and allow contactless payments through smartphones.

In 2021, the central bank opened up registration for companies to apply for licenses to enable mobile contactless payments.

Tokenization is a process of substituting the consumers’ card and personal information with a unique randomly generated code (which is the “token”), providing users with a more secure way to shop.

Various applications are currently available internationally using this system, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.

These providers are required to obtain a license from the CBE to become authorized to provide Original Equipment Manufacturers and Host Card Emulation Wallets through their applications (using the cards issued by banks regulated in Egypt).

The CBE is the main authorized body/service provider of the Unified Issuer TSP Interface connecting banks and approved networks.

In its report, the CBE added that it has expanded the network of electronic point of sales (POS) devices via initiatives and measures to motivate banks to deploy additional devices. Around 300k electronic POSs have been rolled out, bringing the total number of POSs in Egypt to 1,091,000.