Egypt starts new stage towards transforming into digital society: Min.

CAIRO – 13 August 2020: Egypt is witnessing currently a new start towards transforming the society into a digital one and achieving the goals of financial inclusion, according to Minister of Finance  Mohamed Ma’it.

Ma’it clarified Thursday that this transformation contributes to facilitating citizens' access to services at their actual value, and is consistent with presidential directives to gradually move to "digital Egypt".

He described digital Egypt as a national project, which is one of the catalysts for economic growth, explaining that the ministry has gone a long way in implementing the national project for digital transformation, which enjoys strong support and close follow-up by the political leadership, and all electronic systems in the ministry in its various sectors and interests will be completed by the end of next June.

He added that the ministry, in cooperation with the Central Bank and the administrative authorities and banks involved in the electronic payment system for workers 'entitlements in the country, had started the experimental phase for replacing government cards for the disbursement of state workers' entitlements with the developed national payment cards known in the media with the secure Meeza card with contactless smart chips.

Meeza card provides citizens with additional services represented in cash withdrawals from “ATM” machines, electronic purchase via the Internet, payment of government dues electronically through the government electronic payment and collection system, and purchases through electronic points of sale (POS), according to the minister.

The minister noted that the electronic payment and collection system aims to save about 25 percent of the cost of issuing the currency, and about 50 percent of the time for performing the service, and reducing the procedures.  “This will reflect positively on Egypt's ranking in international indicators, especially those concerned with measuring the competitiveness of countries in the areas of ease of doing business and transparency, which are based on three axes: “cost, time, and procedures,” and then contribute to increasing employment rates, growth in national income, and reducing inflation.”

Head of the Finance Sector and Supervisor of the Electronic Payment and Collection Unit at the Ministry of Finance Emad Abdel Hamid, said that they are aiming to replace nearly 5 million cards for the disbursement of workers' entitlements in the country with “Meeza” cards for free, pointing out that the pilot phase began with 3,000 cards, to test the mechanisms and avoid any complaints before generalizing the experience to all administrative authorities.

He pointed out that the ministry had started implementing the digital transformation project in government financial transactions since 2007, in a way that would contribute to the integration between fiscal and monetary policy and the achievement of "Egypt Vision 2030".

He explained that the Ministry of Finance was keen to build the electronic system with well-established rules, through many ministerial decisions and periodic books, with attention to the technological infrastructure of devices and means of communication, establishing databases, systems for managing electronic payment and collection, and also paying attention to training human resources and qualifying them to deal with the latest automated systems, in light of Law No. 18 of 2019 to regulate non-cash payments.

Director of the Electronic Payment and Collection Unit at the Ministry of Finance, Dalia Fawzy, confirmed that each of the banks: «Egypt, Al-Ahly, Construction and Housing, Arab African International, the Emirates National Dubai, Cairo, the Arab Banking Corporation, The United Bank, and Trade International» chose an accounting unit in the contracted administrative authorities to conduct the experimental phase of replacing government cards for the payment of state employees' dues with "Meeza" cards, which are the most recent technology in the world and offer many advantages other than banking services.