For years, Egyptian companies have been paying salaries in cash, and people have been saving money outside banks. Only 10 percent of Egyptians have bank accounts, according to Payfort’s State of Payments in the Arab World 2014 report.
Over the previous decade, the electronic payment market has been penetrated by two firms: state-owned e-Finance, which handles electronic payments from and to the government through banking channels, and private-sector Fawry, which was launched in 2008 to provide payment solutions through ATM machines, mobile wallets, and retail points.
Chief technology officer of Fawry, Mostafa Elnahhas, told Wamda that his company succeeded in spreading 65,000 collection points in 300 cities for banked customers in Egypt. However, the electronic payment is still small-sized due to the large amount of unbanked customers and the low credit card penetration.
ayachehbouni on 13 Feb 21First, Fawry collaborated with banks to use bill presentment and payment to banks customers through bank ATM channels. Fawri also provided a payment service using mobile wallets in collaboration with the National Bank of Egypt. These kind of fruitful collaborations are what raised the company's services' importance and value.
This excerpt highlights that Fawry is not only an electronic bill payment platform. A lot of people think that the company only offers bill payment services, and went famous for this service, however, the company expanded its product offerings to other fintech solutions like digital lending.
