Government, CBE moves contribute to shifting towards cashless society: Fawry managing director

We are negotiating with ministries of transport, justice, interior to provide electronic payment solutions for their services, Okasha

Fawry Electronic Payment Solutions plans to conduct financial transactions worth EGP 40bn through its network this year and to grow clients' base by 40%.
Daily News Egypt sat down for an interview with Mohamed Okasha, managing director of Fawry, who said that the company is working on several products for the e-commerce sector. The transcript for which is below, lightly edited for clarity:
How do you see changes in sector in past two years?
The major change is the government's support along with other sovereign bodies and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to transform into a cashless society, which has contributed in building many initiatives in this direction.
There are many examples of this. For instance, the electricity sector has taken major steps to facilitate the usage of prepaid smart meters, which helps clients to control and rationalise their consumption. Fawry played a major role in this plan by providing recharge services for the clients, instead of having them obligated to go to the branches of the electricity distribution companies on working hours only. Now, thanks to Fawry, clients can recharge their smart meters at any time.
Another example is renewing licenses and paying for traffic tickets. These are just a couple of examples in a major plan of transforming into a cashless society in cooperation with the government.
Any new projects in partnership with government?
We are now negotiating with the officials of the transportation sector to market metro tickets and subscriptions through Fawry+ outlets. We are also working with other companies, such as West Delta and East Delta transportation companies, as well as the Egyptian Opera House to enable paying for reservations through Fawry. We have also contracted with several universities to enable students to pay tuition fees through us.
There are also discussions to provide services for some of the bodies affiliated with the Ministries of Interior and Justice in the coming period.
What growth opportunities do you see in market?
There is potential for growth in the coming period in the sectors for which we provide our services.
Can you share company's own growth plans?
We plan to increase collections and payment points to 100,000 up from 80,000 now.
Our points of sale are competitive compared to other companies. The payment services in these points are more advanced and can provide over 15 different services, such as recharging mobile credit, paying bills, issuing receipts, and recharging smart me- ters. About 70% of Fawry's POS can deal with bank cards and electricity prepaid cards. Roughly 3 million people recharge their electricity cards through Fawry every month, which is almost 65% of all recharge transactions. Therefore, any new service be- ing launched is available at all our sales points directly.
What growth opportunities do you see in market today?
I think that the e-commerce market is one of the most prominent sectors with strong growth opportunities, and we have noticed for some time that there is an opportunity to grow and have been preparing for this. In the coming days, we will start a new product that will help e-commerce business owners to display their products and accept payments by different means.
Can you reveal new product?
Some companies only sell their products online. This type of companies has a problem, as it only allows people to pay via credit cards or cash on delivery. But our product will enable their clients to pay throw Fawry Pay. This tool enables clients to make payments through different means, including PayPal, Fawry, and even instalment schemes in coordination with a number of banks.
Another product will also allow e- commerce newbies to grow. The new service is called Shop Builder, which is a tool that helps them build their website on Fawry Platform throw a series of simple steps. The platforms then set up an e-commerce website for a small monthly fee.
The third product is the collection and payment to the food industry companies. Through this service, the dealer dealing with the company can pay the value of the products received by the company through Fawry or prepare for instalment through intermediar y banks. The instalment period varies according to the different size of credit to the merchant.
Currently, we offer this service to Coca-Cola, Beyti, Nestle, Juhayna among others. Instead of collecting cash, the funds are paid through Faery.
Do you see opportunities for growth in government sector in coming period?
There is an opportunity in the collection of real estate taxes, as many people do not have enough information on this law. Some tax offices cannot accommodate these many people who will visit to inquire and/or pay. Fawry can hence play a major role here.
We also cooperate with a number of banks to collect the instalments of the social housing project and we are currently offering this service to the National Bank of Egypt and are currently negotiating with two other banks.