Mohamed Okasha MANAGING DIRECTOR of fawry expecting around 40% to 45% increase the volume of payments through Fawry’s network next year

Fawry the Egyptian e-payment solutions company has partnerships with more than 28 banks and still waiting the approval of the Central bank to provide banking services through its Fawry Plus branches and expect by end of this summer to reach 100 branches, The company’s Managing Director Mohamed Okasha Said through his interview with ICT NEWS Magazine I believe mobile is winning of improving the financial inclusion in Egypt over the other means We have launched services with banks and ATMs for over 7 or 8 years now, and as the mobile services for couple of years ago.

But now the volume that we are processing through the mobile is almost equal if not exceeding in some banks over the ATMs, which means that the mobile is being accepted as a consumer tool to provide financial services.

• As being Fawry the Egyptian e-payment solutions company.. What about your latest collaboration with the government and the latest projects and services that will be launched during 2019?

Actually there are already many projects running with the government and we are willing to grow most of them in 2019.

Basically we have an agreement with the Ministry of Electricity to support their initiatives by providing prepaid services in every home through Fawry network, that’s because we are capable of allowing consumers to recharge their electricity cards through Fawry.

We are now serving around 4.5 million citizens, who can -on a monthly basis- charge their prepaid card.

The other initiatives are with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice where we are offering our services that allow customers to pay fines (allowed electronically to inquire) and pay for the renewal of car license as well as delivering it to their homes. These services are all offered through our network which is 6000 retailers, the mobile wallets or banks, mobile wallets of operators and also through all the bank channels either ATM or mobile banking.

• Banque du Caire has launched an electronic credit card and loans services in cooperation with Fawry.. According to this deal, What are the benefits your customers will get and the bank’s customers as well? And we are looking forward to know whether Fawry will proceed this deal with other banks or not?

We do have cooperation with Banque du caire but not on that, we are their network of collection for the microfinance, loans, and credit card repayments. We also are aggregating our prepayment services through their mobile wallets and couple of other initiatives that we are working on. But we are not issued in cards with them. We are not in a business issued cards but we are enabling the banks card to be accepted on our network. Meaning that if you have bank card either Visa, Mastercard, Mizacard or a mobile wallet; you can go to any of Fawry stores and use it as a payment method and purchase from Fawry stores or any outlets having Fawry teller. Of course we can proceed the same deal with other banks.

• Fawry is still waiting for the approval of the Central bank to provide banking services through its Fawry Plus branches.. Is there any new news that will be announced soon about this project? And How many branches do you expect to reach by the end of 2019?

Currently we are around 73 branches and we expect by end of this summer to reach 100 branches, and to end the year reaching 120 stores throughout Egypt.

Yes we are still waiting and about to finalize an agreement, as the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has a direction to issue an agent bank classes which enables companies like Fawry (Fawry Plus the biggest of them specially) to offer financial services on behalf of the bank, so it becomes like a branch of a bank. Services like KYC services for opening a mobile wallet, cashing the transfers and all other KYC services that normal Fawry stores cannot provide. Although we are already an agent banking for many banks and operators in terms of cash in and cash out as we can cash in mobile wallets, Yet the KYC needs a special services that cannot be done except in a branch.

• How is Fawry changing the culture of payments in Egypt?

Actually Fawry is doing this in many things and ways, the way we are capitalizing on the mobile and the e-commerce are allowing the consumers to connect to new services that were not offered for them before.

As I mentioned before that number of credit cards in Egypt is very limited and even number of cards used for salaries are not the ones been used to electronically purchase products in stores. Using Fawry infrastructure we are allowing consumer to use their mobiles to either buy online or pay for products in stores, and this is breaching the gap and bringing the financial services to all customers helping the customer who cannot reach the bank channels or branches.

• How can mobile and online solutions help in improving the financial inclusion in Egypt?

Mobile is the key; I believe mobile is winning over the other means. We have launched services with banks and ATMs for over 7 or 8 years now, and as the mobile services for couple of years ago.

But now the volume that we are processing through the mobile is almost equal if not exceeding in some banks over the ATMs, which means that the mobile is being accepted as a consumer tool to provide financial services. Also we have invested a lot in the mobile financial platform that is offering to 18 banks, 2 mobile operators using our technology. And by mobile platform I mean the applications “front in” that you use on your mobile, the “back in” services, the gateway that connect them to the pay bill services and person to person transfer.

• What’s new considering the cooperation with the Egyptian operators and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology?

We are currently working with 4 operators in different fronts. Basically the one common service is cash in and cash out, bill payment accreditation for all of them, and couple of them have used our mobile technology to offer their mobile wallet. We also doing normal services for them since years, which is collecting their bill payments through different channels either banked or unbanked, selling of air time and e-vouchers since long time ago and that’s why we represent a significant channel for them in front. So we are always very close to the banks and operators in terms of new initiatives.

• According to the strategy of 2030 in which the government aims to prevent any cash and increase cashless transaction instead.. Do you think the Egyptian market is ready yet to become a completely cashless society?

The accurate word is less Cash not Cashless. As Fawry we are doing a great job in this operating with other entities that exist, which is managing the cash more efficiently. Giving an example on this: highly cash less countries like UAE, they have a shocking number of cash circulation is 80% of the transaction so it’s not what you see from outside. Our aim is not to move to cash less immediately but as we go on we provide services that provide efficiency in the cash, we believe it’s a transition “The more you do services, The more the customer get used to the new model”.

The most important is the service which you offer, we offer them conveniently so it’s easy to use, customers experience is even more important too. So it’s not about using a logo, you have to give a solution and consumers will adapt the new payment technology to buy their needs.

• We still have a gap in cash and cash less system.. How can the private sector and companies cooperate with the government to either avoid or reduce this gap?

Let me give you an example on what we are doing in Egypt to show how companies can cooperate in this; we are allowing our merchants to accept electronic payment, so once they accept e-payments they don’t have cash they then deal with electronic money. What we’ve done is thinking of this e-money and how can he use it to pay his suppliers. On our Fawry platform we’ve connected most of the FMCGs and all the other big brands, so the merchants if he accepted e-payments from you as a byer then he will use these e-money once he get the visit to drop goods and pay through Fawry in return as well. That’s how we managed to have a full working solution. We always think about how to make sure that the whole cycle is working, if you accept the money electronically then you have to use it buy electronically and these suppliers would love to have services electronically to not have their cash ribbed in streets. That’s the approach we are taking.

• What do we need to encourage people to accept the use of electronic payment to do business?

As I mentioned before that we have to think of the business model and what do people need, e-payment technology is there to solve their problems. If I managed to help the business to work with new systems that were not applicable before and that makes people’s life easier, then this will definitely encourage them to use the new technology. E.g. in the e-commerce site: If it was able to use Fawry to address larger parts of the population, people who don’t have credit cards or bank cards, by using Fawry as a payment option, Then they get more encouraged by this new business that is much easier. Encourage retailers to accept more e-payments from consumers, and then gradually consumers will not need cash money to use.

To be able to offer retailers finance (cash money) in order to buy his goods which he will later sell accepting e-payments in return, and through our micro finance company, we provide retailers with loans, and these electronic loans are only limited to buy his suppliers. So such solutions are addressing a need (a problem).

• What about Fawry’s startegy during 2019 and the target to increase the value of its financial transaction?

We will focus mainly on “acceptance” allowing our base to receive consumer payments through electronic methods either mobile wallets or cards. And this is growing nicely, as in the last period we have grown Fawry network to accept all payment methods.

E-commerce in terms of enabling small, medium and large corporates” to accept e-payments. Ticketing which is a solution addressing a segment of transportation and Loyalty programs. That’s for all our customers either banks, operators or FMCGs; enabling our network to be the redemption network for them. And that’s our main focus in industry and the main points we are taking in consideration.

• Can you explain how the company’s outlets have many competitive advantages compared to its competitors?

There’re many things to be mentioned. Firstly, we are continuously developing new products, making sure to offer consumers and retailers more services from one place. Secondly, most of our terminals such as bill payments and card acceptance of all its kinds, that none of our competitors have these types of terminals; they usually use the basic mobile phones as their main channels. Thirdly, we have connection to banks; we are the provider for all banks in terms of bill payment aggregation, none of the competitors use others. Fourthly, we have approval from the Central Bank of Egypt to provide these services and certifications to apply them as well. So most of the dimensions like ticketing, e-commerce and loyalty, are new areas that we have gone into and none of our competitors has yet. So what we are doing uniquely is focusing on the business development through e-payments.

• What are the investment opportunities you see in the Egyptian market?

We as Fawry are highly investing in the Egyptian marker of course, as the potential is huge and we are still in the beginnings of financial services expansion.

We are investing in small companies that are specialized in specific services that complement the eco system; like investing in “Tazkara” ticketing company, “Posta” Logistics company (Korean company), “Waffarha” company offering coupons and discounts.

We also have founded a new company called “Fawry FMCG” specialized in the finance and FMCGs services and have launched our micro finance company so we are investing in areas where they’re complementing the eco system overall.

• How do Fawry services encourage bank’s customers to proceed the payments through their bank accounts?

We do have our gateway that is connected to bank channels and this allows us to provide services for bank’s customers, so every bank is able to use this gateway on all its channels to offer Fawry services to his customers. This infrastructure has been built over years and matured to become very advantageous. I think by far we are the only company in Egypt to doing this.

• What is the list of banks you are cooperating with?

We are working with most of the banks in Egypt if not all using our Fawry services; we have partnerships with more than 28 banks.