E-payment giant MasterCard inks MoU to digitalize SMEs in Egypt

The protocol aims to boost digitization and financial inclusion in Egypt by providing MaxAB’s 100 SME clients with contactless payment services.

“Through the agreement with MasterCard, we will be able to digitalize payment services for our clients, helping them accelerate their growth,” said CEO of MaxAB Belal El-Megharbel.

According to MasterCard, the MoU is the first of its kind in Egypt and comes in line with the company’s strategy to digitalize 50 SMEs worldwide by 2025.

MaxAB is a B2B business in the retail industry that was founded in 2018 as an E-commerce platform. The company operates in Egypt and Morocco.

Egypt has made significant progress in recent years towards digitalization.

In December 2022, the country inked 29 agreements with foreign businesses, including IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dell Technologies, to establish outsourcing centres. This move is projected to increase the country's digital exports by $1 billion by 2025 and generate more than 34,000 jobs.

The financial inclusion rate in Egypt increased by 5.4 percent to 67.3 percent during the first six months of 2023, according to a report by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

In October, Minister of​ Telecommunications and Information Technology Amr Talaat stated that Egypt invested EGP 50 billion in digital transformation projects.