The partnership between e-Finance, a developer of digital payments infrastructure, and the Ministry of Finance has resulted in the increase of customs and tax e-payments to over 80% and 40% respectively, according to Chairperson and Managing Director of e-finance, Ibrahim Sarhan. He pointed to the constructive cooperation between e-Finance and the Egyptian government in implementing the "Digital Egypt" strategy. Under this strategy, all government services will be provided electronically. Sarhan's comments came during his participation in the "Narrative Summit – Reshaping Norms" conference. Egypt hosted the conference, which was set up to discuss the socio-economic impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic has meant that one of the impacts Egypt has felt, was the increased need for citizens to engage in technology for financial solutions. Sarhan highlighted that building an efficient technological infrastructure is the first step for digital transformation. This has prompted the Egyptian government to allocate a huge budget in recent years to the country's digital infrastructure, with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology starting development in this area. The second step was changing the prevailing business models and business culture of employees and citizens, he explained. Sarhan noted that employee recognition of the importance of technology has lead to a successful response to the country's digital transformation. He added that the next challenge is to provide new digital services in an easy, convenient way for citizens and measure their satisfaction with the services. He anticipates that the percentage of satisfaction with the new services may reach 50% or 60%, and would increase gradually to 90% or 95% after further development.
