Accept payments in Egypt

Egypt Payment Market Overview

Egypt has a consumer market of more than 90 million people, most of whom are younger than 30 years of age and increasingly technology-savvy. Internet penetration stands at 35.6%, implying one of the largest populations of prospective online shoppers in the Arabic-speaking world.

The strong potential of Egypt’s large consumer population, in particular its large youth social media-savvy segment, is another opportunity to exploit. Investments and initiatives in Egypt in establishing national B2C and B2B platforms, in particular in Arabic, as well as other key e-commerce-related commercial services, have potential to pay off.

Payment Methods in Egypt

Key Market Indicators in Egypt

Banks in Egypt

Mobile Carriers in Egypt

Integrate Egypt Payment Methods

While Egypt has a sound regulatory environment for electronic payments, factors such as a cultural preference for cash to resistance to change in traditional ways of doing business work against the uptake of e-payments and impedes e-commerce use. Although Egypt boasts the largest number of credit card holders in the region, albeit small as a proportion of the population, they are often reluctant to use their cards. The penetration of debit cards is rapidly expanding, but they are frequently not activated for e-commerce purchases.

In recent years, a number of mobile payment solutions have been offered by a few banks, though the uptake has been below expectations and, further, they are not enabled for e-commerce purchases. As a result, over 90 per cent of e-commerce transactions are paid in cash on delivery. The limited portion of the population with access to e-payment services by itself is also a major barrier to e-payments for e-commerce. This is especially the case in rural areas, where penetration of banking channels, familiarity and confidence in using banking services and ability to meet the “know your customer” (KYC) requirements pose a challenge