OPay Egypt, an e-payment services and financial solutions provider, has obtained the Central Bank of Egypt’s preliminary approval to issue pre-paid cards via the company’s app
For our top talks today, first, OPay Egypt, an e-payment services and financial solutions provider, has obtained the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) preliminary approval to issue pre-paid cards via the company’s app. The pre-paid cards will be issued in collaboration with Masria Digital Payments (MDP), a major card supplier in the local and regional markets. These cards will enable customers to deposit a sum of money to be used for cash withdrawals and make purchases without the need to open banking accounts. This cooperation will reinforce the financial inclusion process in line with the National Payments Council, Director of Business Development and Partnership at OPay Egypt Mahmoud Khedr said. (Arab Finance)
It is worthy to mention that the presidential initiative for economic reform, along with resulted decrees and CBE’s initiatives, has highly contributed to attracting further foreign investors to the Egyptian market, particularly in the fintech sector, Khedr added.
For his part, Hisham Ezz El-Din, Digital and Cards Business Director at OPay, said that the pre-paid cards will be linked with the OPay App to provide all required solutions to customers. The customer will be able to request to issue the card or cancel it via the app, Ezz El-Din pointed out, adding that this comes in line with the company’s expansion plan across Egypt. It is worth noting that OPay had signed a cooperation protocol with MDP in 2021 for the issuance of banking cards. On February 28th, OPay launched its first store in Egypt which is located in Downtown, El Tagamoa El Khamis, as part of its expansion plan. OPay is a leading fast-growing company in the fintech sector, with operations focused on the MENA region. (Arab Finance)
Dice Sport and Casual Wear (DSCW) has appointed Solid Capital Advisory to conduct a study on the fair value (FV) of the company’s capital stocks in preparation for the capital increase.
In February, the company’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) approved increasing authorized capital to 500 million EGP from 300 million EGP. The EGM also approved raising the company’s issued capital to 371 million EGP from 106 million EGP. Dice is an Egypt-based company engaged in the casual wear garments and textile industry. (EGX)
Cairo-based digital payments provider Paymob announced market entry and start of operations in Pakistan.
The company’s expansion in Pakistan comes after its successful operations in Egypt, Jordan, and Kenya. It also aims to launch its tap-on-phone payment service in Pakistan, which has been newly introduced in the Egyptian market with MasterCard Inc. Pakistan marks a significant opportunity for Paymob as it has a population of over 20 million, with more than four million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using over 80,000 points of sale (PoS) terminals and less than 3,000 e-commerce gateways. In 2021, Pakistan had a record of funding of over 350 million USD, with Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global Management making their first investments in the past few months. Moreover, the company plans to enter the Saudi Arabian market later in 2022. (Bloomberg)
Kemitt launches a B2B marketplace for furniture, home accessories, and materials ranging from living room sets to bedroom sets, and from dining room tables to office desks, and even raw materials for furniture manufacturing.
The new platform will give access to thousands of pieces of furniture from hundreds of suppliers. Kemitt’s B2C platform allows customers to access over 30,000 SKU, with on-demand manufacturing and 7-12 days delivery to their doorstep. Kemitt saves customers from having to explore showrooms and furniture stores by fully digitizing the shopping experience and using the best tech in the market while offering all payment and financing plans. (WAYA)
Saudi Arabian fintech and e-payment firm Geidea has entered into a partnership for cooperation with Cairo-based B2B e-commerce marketplace Fatura to supply retailers and wholesalers in Egypt with the most up-to-date e-payment services.
The partnership between Geidea and Fatura will enable merchandizers to manage their stock of goods through Fatura app. It will also allow for the provision of various services by Geidea, including bill payments. Commenting on the partnership, General Manager of Geidea Egypt Ahmed Nader said that it will give Fatura’s merchandizers access to the pioneering capabilities of Geidea platform through points of sale (POS) and mobile apps. (Arab Finance)
Emirati state-owned Alpha Oryx Limited has bought 1.825 billion USD worth of shares in five companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) on April 12th.
Alpha Oryx acquired a 18.6% stake in the Commercial International Bank Egypt (CIB) (COMI) in consideration of 987.48 million USD. The Abu Dhabi-based company bought a 20% stake in Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO) (MFPC) in consideration of 266.55 million USD. Alpha Oryx acquired a 21.52% stake in Abu Qir Fertilizers and Chemicals Industries Company (ABUK) for 391.94 million USD. The Emirati company also bought a 32% stake in Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling Company (ALCN) for 186.067 million USD. Furthermore, Alpha Oryx acquired a 12.6% stake in Fawry for Banking Technology and Electronic Payment (FWRY) for 68.598 million USD. Stakes were bought from the Ministry of Finance, Alexandria Port Authority, National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, and National Investment Bank (NIB) (EGX)
Pylon, infrastructure management platform transforming electricity and water companies in emerging markets, raised 19 million USD in a Seed funding round.
The seed round began with initial funding from Y Combinator and was led by Endure Capital, with participation from Cathexis Ventures, Khawarizmi Ventures, Loftyinc Ventures, and various high profile angel investors. The startup will use the fund to accelerate their growth via expansion into other emerging markets such as: South-East Asia, Africa, Latin America and advance engineering and product development. The startup is already working with multiple companies across two continents who have deployed more than one million end points of Pylon’s smart grid technology, across 15 distribution companies. Pylon’s goal is to increase its smart metering points to three million by 2023, which would represent 4x year-on-year growth. (WAYA)
Moving to our economic talks, the Egyptian public treasury has allocated EGP 405 million as green incentives to replace around 17,900 old vehicles with gas-powered ones, according to the Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.
This step comes under the initiative to replace obsolete vehicles with new ones, in accordance with the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the minister said. The initiative aims to encourage investors to expand their business within the green projects, in order to boost the economic growth rates and achieve sustainable development, he highlighted. (Arab Finance)
Moreover, as per the initiative, new gas-run vehicles shall be manufactured and the components of old cars shall be recycled in a safe way through the use of modern eco-friendly technologies, Maait added.
Accordingly, this will help in localizing industrial activities, as well as in alleviating pollution and carbon emissions, he noted. It is worth noting that private car owners are allowed to receive a green incentive estimated at 10% of the cost of a new car at up to 22,000 EGP under the initiative, while taxi owners are allowed to get a 20% incentive at up to 45,000 EGP. The incentive for microbus owners represents 25% of the cost of a new vehicle at up to 65,000 EGP. (Arab Finance)
Egypt’s trade balance deficit fell by 32.3% to 2.44 billion USD in January, compared to 3.60 billion USD in the same month of 2021, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
The value of Egyptian exports rose by 34.5% year-on-year (YoY) to 3.99 billion USD in January from 2.97 billion USD. The agency attributed this growth in exports to the surge in values of some commodities, including petroleum products, crude oil, ready-made clothing, and plastics by 107%, 66.5%, 46.8%, and 76.3%, respectively. On the other hand, the value of Egypt’s imports stood at 6.43 billion USD last January, slipping by 2.2% from 6.57billion USD in the corresponding month of 2021. This decrease was driven by the decline in some imports’ value, including crude oil, soybean, wheat, and corn which fell by 0.6%, 16.4%, 42.6 and 37.1%, respectively. (CAPMAS)
And finally, the Egyptian government is considering importing wheat outside of tenders, making it possible for companies to submit their offers directly to the Ministry of Supply.
This move would help the world’s largest importer of wheat to secure supplies amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Egypt currently only purchases wheat cargoes through tenders, mostly from Black Sea countries such as Russia and Ukraine, where trade has been impacted by the war. As per the potential changes, the unselected cheapest offers in tenders organized by the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) would be given the permission to be offered directly to the supply ministry the following day for consideration. The country also aims to accept cargoes of 50,000 tons of wheat for direct purchases, instead of the usual shipments ranging between 55,000 and 60,000 tons in tenders. It is worth noting that GASC has recently launched a limited tender to buy wheat from Europe only, of which the deadline for receiving bids would be on April 13th. Egypt aims to supply around six million tons of local wheat at a value of 36 billion EGP in 2022. (Bloomberg)
Stay up to date
More Newsletter to Check
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to download our daily economics and business roundup
×
![]()