In the context of its support to micro enterprises and provisioning of e-services to satisfy the needs of this sector, the Commercial International Bank-Egypt (CIB) organised a workshop for microfinance organisations with the aim of introducing them to the bank’s mobile payment services. The workshop was held under the auspices of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA), represented by Gamal Khalifa, head of microfinance.
According to a CIB press release, the mobile payment services workshop was organised in line with the directives of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) issued to banks to start providing mobile payment services to micro enterprises.
The bank stated that such services contribute to offering more convenient, secure, and less costly financial transactions, as they allow organisations to deposit loans directly to customers’ smart wallets on mobile phones. “Besides, customers will be able to pay loan instalments to the organisation through the same smart wallet,” the statement added.
During the workshop, CIB employees from the Digital Banking division provided an in-depth description of the general features and benefits of mobile payment service, clarifying its positive returns for the microfinance organisations and its customers, including cost saving and better managing risks resulting from cash transfers between organisations and customers.
The statement noted that this will, consequently, lead to broadening customers bases for organisations and strengthen financial inclusion in the society.
Moreover, workshop participants received a full clarification about their expected role as identified by the CBE last November, which regulates the mobile payment transactions.
Finally, the workshop highlighted the full work cycle and listed all documents needed to be eligible for providing this service.
It is worth mentioning that the CBE, in cooperation with the EFSA and the Egyptian Microfinance Federation, announced the launch of a pilot phase to implement payments via mobile phones, which included a number of selected organisations to try providing these services to its customers in association with banks. The list of selected banks included CIB-Egypt to be one of the participating banks for this phase’s implementation.
Mohamed Farag, CIB chief digital officer, said that the CIB is firmly committed to follow and implement the directives of the CBE, as well as other regulatory bodies. He added that such directions strengthen the bank’s ongoing drive to deliver the latest e-solutions to customers, including retail and corporate, in order to fulfill their evolving demands and offer an innovative banking experience.
He noted that from the very beginning of the mobile payments launch, the CIB realised that microfinance organisations and their customers are the most dynamic sectors that should be supported to accelerate the economic development and that they should be attracted via the suitable e-services. “Accordingly, the bank approached different organisations throughout the last year and succeeded to provide services to some of them. This is an added value to the CIB, considering the experience it has gained in this regard, which will consequently save time and effort during the implementation of the pilot phase,” he added.