The Central Bank of Egypt said, in a statement today, Sunday, that it had agreed to grant licenses to provide the service of accepting contactless payments on mobile phones.
The Central Bank added that this approval comes within the framework of implementing the strategy of the National Payments Council headed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and in implementation of the Egyptian government's strategy to shift towards a society less dependent on banknotes and support the strategy of financial inclusion.
The Central stated that the new service represents a breakthrough in facilitating electronic financial transactions, as accepting contactless payments on mobile phones and smart devices is one of the latest and least expensive methods of acceptance, and it is a new technological technology that allows merchants to accept card payments directly on their phones or devices without the need for any additional accessory devices. .
The new technology transforms smart devices into an electronic acceptance point through which payments are accepted using contactless cards in their various forms. The merchant downloads an electronic application on his smart device, and links the application to his bank account.
According to the Central Bank, all purchase transactions made are transferred to the merchant's account directly, quickly and securely, as soon as they are made.
The Central pointed out that one of the most important advantages of applying contactless payments on smart devices is to reduce the cost of buying or renting traditional electronic vending machines, in addition to the lack of maintenance costs that were carried out for vending machines, the expansion of the inclusion of the category of small merchants, and the promotion of acceptance of payments for daily ordering services.
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