Vice chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Banks and chairman of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) Hisham Okasha said that only 8 million of 54 million eligible Egyptian citizens have bank accounts. The statement was part of Okasha's speech in the opening session of the forum held in Sharm El-Sheikh by the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) on Thursday about the role of financing and investment in reinforcing financial inclusion, stability, and fighting terrorism in Arab counties. He said the reason for the low numbers of bank clients is largely due to the lack of banking awareness that a large segment of citizens suffer from. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the Federation of Egyptian Banks both play major roles in spreading the banking culture. The federation holds ongoing workshops amongst banks to pass on experiences in the field of financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and also provides introductory programmes to clients, in which it explains the importance of directing savings to the banking sector.
