Perspectives on Youth Financial Services in Egypt

This is the second installment of our series, Policy Innovations in Youth Financial Services. The series has been an online continuation of the global roundtable that donned the same title and was hosted by CGAP. The roundtable took place in March, and was a place where policy makers from eight nations examined the importance of financial services in youth empowerment and discussed the opportunities and challenges to policy levers and innovation.

An introduction to the author of this post: Dr. Ashraf Gamal El-Din is Executive Chairman of Egypt Post. Throughout this post and even mroeso in the video far below Dr. El-Din elaborates on youth financial services in Egypt. In addition to providing access to appropriate services, he argues that it's critical to make the business case to banks, ensuring that they see young people as a viable business opportunity. The Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI), the training and awareness-raising arm of the Central Bank of Egypt, launched a financial education program back in 2009. The program focused on simple education activities for youth.

Recently, we have started a major Child and Youth Finance program at the EBI. The trigger to start working on child and youth finance issues in Egypt was the first annual Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI) summit that I attended at Amsterdam in April 2012. I went there on behalf of the EBI and it was quite an inspiring event that showed how important it was to develop financial products for the children and youth. During the event, I attended many presentations by financial institutions, NGO's, and also children and youth from all over the world. I realized then that there was huge interest in creating youth and child friendly products both from financial institutions as well as from the target group, i.e. children and youth.

Upon returning to Egypt, I presented my recommendations to the EBI Head, Dr. Mona El Baradei, and to my colleagues. We then created a small task force to work on the program. The program had two main pillars: financial education for children and youth, and working with financial institutions to create products tailored for the children and youth. We went on to create many partnerships with banks and NGOs who were interested in the subject. Furthermore, we have the Egyptian Financial Service Authority (EFSA), as a partner. They are the regulators of all non-banking financial organizations in Egypt, such as insurance companies, brokerage firms, and mortgage finance companies.

The CGAP round table that took place in Paris in March 2013 was another eye-opener for me – showing that developing countries have so much to learn from each other. In many cases, developed country experiences may not be replicable in developing countries. I found that many African, Asian, and Latin American countries have experiences relevant to Egypt and represent lessons that can be learnt and implemented in Egypt and in other developing countries. The CGAP roundtable added more potential partners to our network, and also gave me a good idea of what Postal Authorities can do to help. This has already helped me add this item on the agenda of my new organization that I am currently heading - Egypt Post.

Be sure to watch the following interview with Dr. Ashraf Gamal El-Din on youth financial services in Egypt. Access to appropriate financial services is a key part of what young people need, as well as equipping them with the ability to manage their money and interact effectively with banks and the financial system, says Gamal. In addition to providing access to appropriate services, he argues that it's critical to make the business case to banks so that they see the young people as a viable business opportunity.