CBE studies allowing opening bank accounts via mobile app in 2024

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) intends to allow the opening of bank accounts for customers via a mobile phone application in 2024. The application will launch during the next year for Egyptian citizens and expats, according to an unnamed government official who spoke to Asharq Bloomberg.

The new service will be provided through the Digital Financial Identity Company, to which the Central Bank of Egypt contributes a 55 percent share of the company’s capital, which amounts to LE 500 million.

In 2022, the CBE launched its financial inclusion strategy for 2022-2025 to promote financial inclusion in the country.

The financial inclusion rate in Egypt increased by 5.4 percent to 67.3 percent during the first six months of 2023, according to a report by the CBE last week.

The report also showed that Egyptians who have accounts in banks, Egypt Post, mobile phone wallets, or prepaid cards increased to 44.6 million by the end of June 2023 from 42.3 million at the end of December 2022.

Deputy Governor of the CBE, Rami Aboulnaga, announced that the number of Instapay customers reached more than 6.2 million users in 2022.

Within the scope of CBE’s strategy to transform Egypt into a technological center, the number of financial services companies raised from 32 to 177 companies, which contributed to attracting $800 million from 2017 to 2022, Aboulnaga added.