Ayman Hussein, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) for Payment Systems and Information Technology, said that the activation of CBE's ‘Miza' national payment card, in cooperation with banks in Egypt will be launched in December 2018. During the opening of the ‘People and Banks' conference Tuesday morning, Hussein stressed the importance of the card as an vital step in achieving financial inclusion. Hussein highlighted the CBE's interest in electronic payments, and placed it on its list of priorities. He pointed out that a complete legislative chapter on electronic payments is currently being developed within the new banking law presently being prepared by the CBE. The transition to a cashless society is an urgent necessity at the moment, and the importance of information technology is increasing day by day in the world, according to Hussein. Mobile phones play a big role in achieving financial inclusion and reaching all segments of society everywhere, seeing as the number of mobile phone accounts in banks reached 11.5m by the end of September 2018, Hussein concluded. CBE is studying the possibility of issuing an Egyptian digital currency, said Hussein, without disclosing further details.
