The Financial Times features SME Finance Forum member Fawry. Ashraf Sabry, founder and chief executive officer of Fawry, the Egypt’s oldest and biggest electronic payments company, has ambitious plans that would see Egypt’s mostly unbanked population of 94 million people carry out a broad range of financial transactions on their mobile phones.
Fawry’s services are tailored to meet the needs of the large majority of Egyptians who have no bank accounts. Only 32 percent of the population have accounts according to the Central Bank. Sabryadds that a large proportion of account holders are civil servants who use their debit cards once a month to withdraw their salaries in cash to make payments. Cash on delivery is the preferred method of payment of Egyptians who shop online, he says.