The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has decided to set a EGP1 billion (55,757,452 USD) fund to support fintechs to transform the country into a regional hub for online financial services.

The information was revealed on March 16, 2019, by Ayman Hussein (photo), CBE’s deputy governor in charge of payment systems, during the Arab African Forum launched last Saturday at Aswan, Egypt.

To test the new fintechs, the CBE will also create a laboratory. In addition, by the end of 2019, a cybersecurity centre will be created to secure financial technologies and take proactive actions to deal with security issues and keep digital evidence.

 “Egypt has the success factors that designate it as a fintech pioneer. These factors are notably high demand for financial services, its banking sector, the telecommunications and electronic payment firms, insurance companies, regulatory bodies, incubators, company accelerators, investors and SMEs in the financial sector,” Ayman Hussein indicated.

In short, Egypt wants to leverage those factors to further the transformation of its financial sector and make it a growth driver as well as job and wealth creation tool.