In line with MasterCard’s recent introduction of Egypt’s Mobile Payment Gateway, National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Fawry and Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) have announced the launch of “Phone Cash”, an innovative new mobile payment solution.
The “Phone Cash” mobile payment wallet is available to banked and unbanked customers across Egypt, who can use the service to send money, pay phone bills, load credit to prepaid phones, make donations and reserve airline tickets among the wide range of services offered by Fawry. The wallet will also be used very soon to pay for goods and services at several merchants across Egypt, and enables users to make e-commerce transactions across the globe.
The “Phone Cash” service operates independently from the network of any specific mobile company, making NBE the first bank in Egypt and the wider Middle East to provide such facility. “As the largest commercial bank in Egypt, NBE has been working with our partners for many years to offer the people of Egypt simple and safe ways to manage their finances. We are delighted to announce the launch of this wallet, which does not limit consumers to one mobile network or even a specific type of handset. This product opens doors for all consumers in Egypt to have access to financial services, regardless of whether or not they have a bank account,” said Sherif Elwy, vice chairman, NBE.Consumers can download the “Phone Cash” application on any mobile handset as an e-wallet that is easily recharged with money from any Fawry outlet. NBE customers can also link their MasterCard cards to this application to enable money transfers from their bank accounts to recharge the balance of their e-wallets.
“Fawry has been at the forefront of payment innovation in Egypt, having established ourselves as Egypt’s first and largest bill payment aggregator in 2008. Building on our relationship with MasterCard, this new wallet can be used to deposit or withdraw cash from any of Fawry’s 20,000 outlets and allows consumers in Egypt to make use of our extensive range of services via their mobile phones,” said Ashraf Sabry, chief executive and a founder of Fawry.
“Egypt has proven itself to be a market that embraces innovations in both the payment and mobile space, and we are delighted to build on the Mobile Payments Solution that we launched with the Egyptian Banks Company in this dynamic market. Solutions like these are rapidly opening doors for consumers from all walks of life, whether simplifying day-to-day payments or creating worlds of opportunities for those who have not previously had access to formal banking solutions. We will continue to work with partners like NBE and Fawry to create opportunities for more communities as we work towards a world where everyone has access to safe and simple financial products ,” said Magdy Hassan, country manager, Egypt, MasterCard.
“Mobile payments have come to the forefront across the globe, and we see huge potential for these innovative payments here in Egypt. We are delighted to announce this latest mobile offering in line with our aims to provide a comprehensive infrastructure for financial electronic payment solutions in the market. By working with industry leaders like Fawry, NBE and MasterCard we are now bringing financial services to more Egyptians than ever before,” added Mohamed Kamel Bayoumi, Managing Director, Egyptian Banks Company
