The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced that it is working with local banks to roll out card tokenization services on mobile applications running on Android devices in the coming period. The move follows the launch of the service on Apple Pay, which marked the first phase of Egypt's card tokenization initiative. According to the CBE, the step is a key milestone in encouraging citizens to use mobile phones for digital financial transactions. The initiative is being implemented in cooperation with international payment networks Visa and Mastercard, Egypt's national payment system Meeza, Apple, local banks, mobile payment app providers, and fintech companies. The CBE noted that the project will strengthen integration between domestic and international payment systems, broaden the scope of digital payment services in Egypt, and boost consumer confidence in electronic transactions. The report also revealed that the number of Meeza national cards exceeded 41.5 million in December 2024. Meanwhile, mobile wallet accounts rose to 50.4 million, executing 1.1 billion transactions worth a total of EGP 1.54trn during the second half of 2024. As for Egypt's instant payments network InstaPay, the CBE confirmed that work is underway to introduce new services as part of ongoing upgrades to the system.
