The Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI) and the international institution Visa signed a cooperation protocol for the project of promoting financial awareness for the Government Payroll Project. That is in light of the orientation of the Egyptian government and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to strengthen the financial inclusion and integrate the financially marginalised groups in the official financial sector. According to Mona El-Baradei, Executive Director of EBI, this project targets 120,000 employees in the governmental sector in the first phase, to be followed by several other phases. The project stands as a substantial change in the activity of the initiative launched by EBI for raising the financial awareness, under the name "Shaping the Future", not only in regard to dealing with new age groups but to touch the lives of a wide category in society and affect their daily financial decisions. She said that EBI hopes to be a supporter for the financial inclusion and a contributor to enhance the living standards of the categories financially marginalised. The cooperation between EBI and Visa is a model for the partnership between the private and public sectors to achieve developmental goals related to raising the citizens' awareness and improving their quality of life. Tarek El-Housseiny, General Manager of Visa North and West Africa Region, said the payroll cards project reflects the government's clear awareness and understanding of the importance of the electronic payments and their positive impact on the official economy. It also supports the banking sector, their impact on achieving financial inclusion of various segments, and saving a lot of money and effort spent in the process of managing cash. The project of promoting financial awareness for the payrolls programme, conducted by Visa in cooperation with EBI, comes as support and to assert on that governmental orientation. It also reflects the belief in the role all of the parties to achieve the aims of the financial inclusion and enable financial services, and the safe, comfortable, advances payment options to everybody. According to ElBaradei, the project aims to educate workers in the governmental sector as well as giving them information needed about using the government payroll cards in purchasing goods and services, as well as paying electricity, mobile, land phones bills, and other basic services. She said the project will increase the awareness of government workers about bank accounts and their importance, as well as dealing with all the electronic payment cards efficiently. "The project depends on direct and indirect communication activities, direct including discussions with the government workers and trainings. Indirect methods will include innovative ideas to create an environment of information, which the employee can easily receive and interact in a way that serves their needs from the government payroll card", she said. The cooperation between EBI and Visa is to support the government's aim to increase dependency on the electronic payments and distributing them. That keeps the money in the banking system for the longest possible period and shrinks the size of the unofficial economy. It will also save effort and spend time on managing cash. It makes it easier for citizens and increases the payment options, which positively reflects on the quality of life. A study conducted by Moody's, upon Visa's demand, showed that the electronic payments through the payment cards contributed to the international economy by about $1.1tn in the period between 2003 and 2008.
