The Banking Executive Magazine - April 2022 Issue

Who Owns World Resources? EGYPT WITNESSED UPSURGE IN FINTECH INVESTMENTS IN 2021 Egypt’s 2021 Fintech Landscape Re- port revealed that a significant surge in venture capital investments was directed to fintech and fintech-en- abled startups. The recently issued report by Fintech Egypt — an initiative powered by the Entral Bank of Egypt (CBE) — re- vealed an unprecedented growth rate of 300% in investment funding amounts attracted by this sector dur- ing 2021 alone. Additionally, the report exhibited ex- tensive progress in the fintech indus- try, starting with only two start-ups in 2014 to a total of 112 by 2021, with a strong uptrend of 55 times, posi- tioning Egypt among the top four ac- tive African countries in the fintech industry. The report also accentuated the fac- tors supporting the fintech industry’s growth in Egypt, most notably, the leap in financial inclusion by 56.2%, the expansion of mobile internet usage by 57.3% of the total popula- tion, in addition to more than 18 fin- tech supporting organisations, including incubators, accelerators, investors, and supporting organisa- tions in all fields of fintech. Furthermore, it emphasised that a sum of $250m has been injected into fintech and fintech-enabled start-ups over the past five years, from $0.9m in 2017. Moreover, there has been an uptrend in fintech deals by 10 times between 2017 and 2021 — from only three deals in 2017 to 32 deals in 2021. It also revealed that 43% of fintech and fintech-enabled start-ups are looking forward to rais- ing seed funding. It is worth noting that this report comes within the framework of the CBE’s efforts in promoting the expan- sion of fintech applications, monitor- ing developments in this vital industry, and providing a compre- hensive overview of the capabilities and needs of fintech contributors, as well as identifying the potential areas for support, collaboration, and part- nership among the fintech ecosys- tem’s stakeholders to achieve financial inclusion and Egypt’s digital transformation goals. the BANKING EXECUTIVE 50 ISSUE 160 APRIL 2022