One infrastructure, one operator, one central bank
Egypt's payment infrastructure is the set of systems that clear and settle payment orders between the country's banks. A single company runs almost all of this market infrastructure: the Egyptian Banks Company (EBC), under the authority of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). It operates the Meeza card scheme, the IPN instant payment rail (whose consumer app is InstaPay), the EG-ACH clearing house, and the national ATM switch under the “123” acceptance brand. Final settlement takes place in the CBE's RTGS, in Egyptian pounds, and the EBC runs the four links upstream of it. A single technical operator thus runs four of the five rails. The fifth belongs to the central bank.
The Egyptian state plays two roles in this market: regulator and payer. Public-sector salaries, pensions, and subsidies are paid onto Meeza cards, which built a cardholder base in six years without any merchant having to persuade a customer to open an account. Ownership of payment instruments has grown faster than their use. Cash is still the everyday payment method, and cash on delivery still shapes e-commerce. The Egyptian market pairs a dense digital infrastructure with shopping habits that remain largely cash-based.
| Function | System | Operator | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large-value settlement | RTGS in Egyptian pounds | Central Bank of Egypt | – |
| Bulk clearing | EG-ACH, interbank credits and debits; salaries, supplier payments, government payments, pensions | Egyptian Banks Company, mandated by the CBE | Expanded to multiple currencies (dollar and euro) in April 2022 |
| Instant credit transfer | IPN (Instant Payment Network), with the InstaPay consumer app | Egyptian Banks Company, on behalf of the CBE | 2022 |
| Domestic card scheme | Meeza, prepaid and debit cards | Egyptian Banks Company | 2019 (Meeza Digital network since 2018) |
| ATM switching | National Switch, “123” acceptance brand | Egyptian Banks Company, on behalf of the CBE | Predates Meeza |
| Cash collection and bill payment | Fawry, Aman, and agent networks | Licensed private operators | Fawry 2008, Aman 2016 |
Meeza: a card scheme built on government payouts
Meeza is Egypt's national card scheme, developed and operated by the Egyptian Banks Company under the authority of the CBE. The card launched in 2019, on technical infrastructure that already existed. The Meeza Digital network, which opened in 2018, carries mobile wallets and QR acceptance, and its use was extended to government agencies in December 2019. There are two card products, a prepaid card and a debit card, linked either to bank accounts or to financial inclusion accounts. The latter extend the card to people that traditional banking never reached.
The card base grew because of a government decision, not because cardholders adopted it on their own. The central bank made Meeza the channel for paying public-sector salaries, pensions, and subsidies, and the base reached more than 43.5 million cards in June 2025 (Central Bank of Egypt, 2025). Other governments in the region have rolled out their domestic schemes the same way. A merchant that does not accept Meeza shuts out the largest share of cardholders, starting with households that have no international card and receive their salary or pension on a Meeza card.
| Meeza | Visa / Mastercard issued in Egypt | |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Domestic. The card is not accepted outside Egypt | Domestic and international |
| Cardholder base | More than 43.5M cards as of June 2025 (CBE), largely driven by government payouts | Concentrated among banked urban customers and higher-income segments |
| Switching | Domestic, through the EBC's National Switch | Authorization routed to the international networks |
| Cardholder use cases | Salaries, pensions, subsidies, local shopping, domestic e-commerce, QR | Domestic and cross-border purchases, travel, international subscriptions |
| Impact on the merchant | Essential to reach the mass-market cardholder base | Essential for customers who shop outside Egypt, and for tourists |
| Key limitation | No acceptance abroad: useless for a merchant billing from a non-Egyptian entity | Cardholders run into the foreign currency spending limits set by their bank |
Card acceptance is growing along two separate paths. The first is hardware at the point of sale. The terminal base exceeds 1.3 million units and the ATM network is close to 26,000 machines, according to market figures reported by the Egyptian trade press in 2025 and 2026. The second path is cheaper for merchants, since the CBE has authorized acceptance without a dedicated terminal. This covers soft POS and tokenization, discussed below.
InstaPay and the IPN: the instant rail and its limits
The Instant Payment Network (IPN) is Egypt's instant payment rail, operated by the Egyptian Banks Company for the CBE and launched in 2022. Consumers access the IPN through InstaPay, its consumer app. Payments are not addressed by account number. The payer enters an alias, either the payee's IPA (Instant Payment Address) or phone number, or scans a QR code. The payee therefore never has to share an account number with the payer. As of June 2025, the CBE reported more than 16 million users and more than 1.1 billion transactions worth EGP 2,400 billion. The rail reached these volumes in three years, the fastest adoption in North Africa.
| Parameter | Value | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Cap per transaction | EGP 70,000 | Central Bank of Egypt, as reported by the State Information Service, 2025 |
| Daily limit | EGP 120,000 | Central Bank of Egypt, as reported by the State Information Service, 2025 |
| Monthly limit | EGP 400,000 | Central Bank of Egypt, as reported by the State Information Service, 2025 |
| Limits apply to | Each linked bank account in the app; limits are not combined across accounts | Central Bank of Egypt, 2025 |
| Transfer fees | 0.1% of the amount, minimum EGP 0.50, maximum EGP 20, since April 2025 | Egyptian business press, March 2025 |
| Balance inquiries | 10 free inquiries or mini-statements per month, then EGP 0.50 each | Egyptian business press, 2025 |
InstaPay's pricing model changed in 2025. The rail was initially free for consumers, with the CBE extending the exemption through a series of decrees; the last one, published on December 30, 2024, covered a renewable three-month period. Free transfers ended in April 2025 and were replaced by a 0.1% fee, with a minimum of EGP 0.50 and a maximum of EGP 20. That EGP 20 cap sets the cost of accepting large payments: above EGP 20,000, the fee becomes fixed, so its percentage weight shrinks as the cart grows. Card acquiring fees, by contrast, remain proportional to the amount, so their relative weight does not decrease with cart size.
Vodafone Cash, Etisalat Cash, and the bank-issued model
In Egypt, a mobile wallet is a payment account held at a bank and distributed under a mobile operator's brand. The CBE regulates these services under its mobile payment services regulations, the second version of which was approved in November 2016. The wallet is issued by a bank. The mobile operator provides the channel, the brand, and the distribution network. The same regulations required interoperability between schemes, with six months to implement it. A user can therefore pay someone with a different wallet, whatever the telecom brand on either one.
The CBE publishes national figures for mobile wallets, regardless of the brand they are distributed under. It counted 55.5 million mobile wallets across all issuers as of June 2025, with 1.4 billion transactions worth more than EGP 1,800 billion. The market is concentrated on a single issuer. Vodafone Cash reportedly accounted for about 55% of wallets, 78% of transactions, and 81% of value in Q2 2025, according to market data cited by the trade press. These figures are not official central bank statistics and should be cited with the caution due to any press source. They do show the scale of a genuine dominance, which should drive the choice of the first wallet to integrate in an acceptance plan.
| Recipient | Daily limit | Monthly limit |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals | EGP 60,000 (previously EGP 30,000) | EGP 200,000 (previously EGP 100,000) |
| Licensed micro-businesses | EGP 80,000 (previously EGP 40,000) | EGP 400,000 (previously EGP 200,000) |
| Unlicensed micro-businesses, self-employed workers | EGP 60,000 (previously EGP 30,000) | EGP 200,000 (previously EGP 100,000) |
Cash-in, cash on delivery, and the real economics of e-commerce
How Egyptians pay does not match the technology available to them. A Crowd Analyzer study covering 2024–2025, reported by Ahram Online, found that 90% of Egyptian consumers say they prefer to pay on delivery. This is a stated preference, not a market share, so it cannot be read directly as a cash-on-delivery rate. Still, the figure is high enough to shape an online merchant's logistics and finances more than the list of available payment rails does. Two channels serve this preference: cash payment at an agent before shipping, and cash on delivery when the order arrives. Their costs and risks are different.
Cash payment at an agent means collecting payment before shipping, through a network of physical outlets connected to an aggregator. The customer orders online, receives a reference code, and pays in cash at a neighborhood store on the network. The merchant receives the funds in its bank account. The order ships only after the payment has been collected. The Fawry model, since copied by Aman, turns an unbanked customer into a prepaying customer, with no risk of non-payment for the seller.
| Channel | Cost to the merchant | Time to get paid | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meeza or international card | Acquiring fee, negotiated with the PSP or bank | A few business days, depending on the contract | Chargebacks and fraud; scheme ratios to monitor |
| InstaPay | 0.1%, capped at EGP 20, so a fixed cost above EGP 20,000 | Immediate; funds are final | No chargebacks; limits cause silent failures |
| Mobile wallet | Acceptance fee set by each issuer | Depends on the acceptance contract | Daily and monthly limits; concentration on one dominant issuer |
| Cash-in by reference code | Aggregator fee, either a percentage or a flat fee depending on the biller | Periodic payout once payment is collected | Cart abandonment before payment, code expiration |
| Cash on delivery | Courier's cash-handling fee, on top of the delivery charge | Delivery, then payout by the courier: several weeks to get paid on average | Refusal at the door, round-trip shipping costs, and credit risk on the courier holding the cash |
Acquiring, acceptance, and tax obligations on payments
Egypt's acquiring market has consolidated around a handful of players, all licensed locally. Fawry dominates cash collection and bill payment. Paymob operates under a CBE Payments Facilitator license, obtained back in 2018, and covers online and in-store acceptance. Geidea and PayTabs, both from the Gulf, target the same customers. Among banks, National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, CIB, and QNB Alahli hold most acquiring contracts and card issuance.
Two recent CBE decisions have lowered the cost of starting to accept payments. The first is card tokenization in mobile apps, governed by a 2023 regulation. It launched on December 10, 2024 with Apple Pay, together with the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, and CIB. The CBE announced its extension to Android devices in September 2025. The second is soft POS, which turns a smartphone into a contactless payment terminal. The central bank announced its official launch on February 1, 2026, after a pilot phase capped at EGP 600 per transaction. Lifting that cap opens the tool to everyday purchase amounts, where the pilot limited it to small transactions.
Tax reporting obligations come with accepting payments. The Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) requires VAT-registered businesses to use e-invoicing for business-to-business transactions, and is rolling out e-receipts in phases for sales to consumers. Decision No. 281 of 2025 extended the system to more taxpayers, effective September 15, 2025. The POS system or ERP must connect to the ETA platform, send each receipt within the allowed time window, and print a verification QR code. This integration touches the same systems as the checkout flow and should be handled in the same project.
- Domestic PSPs settle in Egyptian pounds: currency conversion and its cost are determined at payout, not at the time of sale.
- Plan the ETA integration together with the checkout flow: e-receipt, verification QR code, transmission window.
- Soft POS has enabled acceptance with no hardware investment since February 1, 2026, and the EGP 600 pilot cap has been lifted.
- Tokenization has been available on iOS since December 2024, with Android announced in September 2025: one-tap payment exists, but depends on the issuing bank.
- Installment payments are regulated credit: Valu and Sympl are supervised as lenders, not as simple checkout options.
Licensing: what the CBE requires and what the FRA supervises
The framework rests on Law No. 194 of 2020 on the central bank and the banking sector. It defines payment systems and payment services, and requires the latter to be licensed by decision of the CBE's board of directors. It empowers the central bank to issue supervisory rules for providers. Its Article 50 creates the National Payments Council, established by presidential decree and tasked with reducing cash use outside the banking sector. The legal basis for supervision thus dates from 2020, but the licensing rules for providers were not published until 2025.
On June 19, 2025, the CBE made public its licensing and registration rules for Payment System Operators (PSOs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs), which had been adopted and had taken effect two days earlier, on June 17, 2025. The rules cover deposits to and withdrawals from payment accounts, the execution of transactions and transfers, and the issuance of payment instruments and electronic acceptance channels. They also cover both sending and receiving transfers in Egyptian pounds. The regime sets out several license categories based on the services provided, and minimum capital depends on the category.
| Category | Scope | Minimum capital |
|---|---|---|
| Category A | All payment services covered by the rules | EGP 30,000,000 |
| Category B | Limited range of payment services | EGP 10,000,000 |
| Account information and payment initiation | Account information and/or payment initiation service provider | EGP 20,000,000 |
| Financial guarantee, all categories | Irrevocable, unconditional, automatically renewing bank letter of guarantee in favor of the CBE, issued by a licensed Egyptian bank | 2% of issued and paid-up capital |
The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) supervises non-bank financial activities, so it comes into play as soon as a payment involves credit. Law No. 5 of 2022, in force since February 9, 2022, governs the use of financial technology in this sector, which covers mortgage finance, microfinance, leasing, factoring, and consumer finance. FRA Decree No. 139 of 2023 sets its requirements for infrastructure, information systems, and security, in a scope separate from the one the central bank oversees. The FRA runs a regulatory sandbox, where it grants startups a fee-free temporary license for up to two years.
Law No. 18 of 2019 on non-cash payments governs the use of cash by the public sector and the companies it controls. It was enacted on April 16, 2019. It requires public entities and majority state-owned companies to pay salaries, fees, board attendance fees, and social security contributions by means other than cash. It requires government agencies and public-facing services to offer electronic payment methods. Its implementing regulations were published in the Official Gazette on September 7, 2020, and the compliance period was extended to September 7, 2021. Fines range from 2% to 10% of the amount paid in cash, up to EGP 1 million.
Currency conversion and repatriation: the constraint that dictates the setup
The foreign exchange regime determines whether revenue collected in pounds can be converted into foreign currency, and how long that takes. The Egyptian pound was floated on March 6, 2024. It went from about EGP 31 to the dollar to more than EGP 50 during the trading session, and the central bank raised interest rates by 600 basis points. The parallel market, where the dollar was then trading at EGP 60 to 70, disappeared. The move came alongside the expansion of the International Monetary Fund program to $8 billion and the Ras El Hekma investment deal. Unifying the exchange rate ended years of a dual currency market.
Repatriation means transferring a foreign investor's profits and capital out of Egypt. Law No. 72 of 2017 on investment gives investors the right to transfer their profits and liquidation proceeds, as well as the right to fund their projects from abroad in foreign currency. It bans discriminatory measures against invested capital. In practice, exercising this right depends on whether banks have foreign currency available. Access to foreign currency grew harder in 2022, 2023, and the first quarter of 2024, then eased with the capital inflows that followed the float. The right to transfer was never suspended, but processing times varied widely over time.
- A local account comes first. Domestic acquiring requires an Egyptian entity and a local bank account to receive payouts.
- Conversion happens at payout. Negotiating the payout frequency means choosing your currency exposure.
- Expatriate remittances supply the country's foreign currency: $41.5 billion in 2025 (CBE), ahead of all other recurring sources. The banking system's foreign currency liquidity depends directly on them.
- Repatriation is guaranteed by Law No. 72 of 2017, but it is carried out through a bank and depends on that bank's foreign currency holdings.
- Meeza does not work outside Egypt: a cross-border setup cannot rely on the domestic scheme, however large its cardholder base.
Recent timeline and payment acceptance roadmap
The Egyptian market was built through a series of government decisions, nearly all of which can be dated. Reading them in order keeps you from mistaking an old measure for a new one, or vice versa. The timeline below falls into three phases. The rails were built between 2016 and 2022, regulation ramped up between 2022 and 2024, and from 2025 onward acceptance opened up and rail pricing took hold.
- Set up the legal entity and the local account. Domestic acquiring and payouts in pounds require both. Deal with the foreign exchange regime at this stage, not later.
- Check each partner's license with the right regulator. Payments and acceptance fall under the CBE; installments and credit fall under the FRA.
- Accept Meeza from day one. It is the mass-market cardholder base, fed by government payouts.
- Integrate InstaPay and at least one leading wallet, with explicit handling of limit-related declines and the fallback offered to the customer.
- Add a cash-in channel by reference code (Fawry or Aman) for unbanked customers, collecting payment before shipping.
- Offer cash on delivery only once you have measured the refusal rate, signed a payout contract with firm dates, and set up three-way reconciliation: orders, courier delivery slips, and transfers received.
- Connect the POS system or ERP to the ETA platform as part of the same project as the checkout flow.