Bank clients to increase up to 10M in 5 yrs: official

CAIRO – 26 July 2017: Banking institutions in Egypt target raising their customer base by 10 million clients over the next five years, anonymous official banking sources said Wednesday.

The target comes as part of the government’s plan to pay the salaries of 7 million public sector employees and 7 million pensioners through the banking sector.

“Similar plans will be announced by the government to include 25 million customers in banks in five years,” the sources said, highlighting that there are currently 15 million customers in the Egyptian banking sector.

The Ministry of Finance paid 90 percent of salaries of employees in the administrative apparatus electronically in July, eyeing 100 percent rate in August, deputy Minister of Finance for budgeting Mohamed Moeet said.

Egypt is promoting financial inclusion, as 10 percent of Egyptians have bank accounts. To increase that figure, the National Council for Payments was launched in February to work on transforming the country into non cash-based society over the coming years.

The main targets of the council are to reduce using banknotes outside of the banking system, promote using electronic channels in payments, achieve financial inclusion, increase tax collections and bring the parallel economy into the official one.