🇪🇬 Payments in Egypt

Egypt's payment mix has shifted fast from cash toward cards, instant bank transfers and installments. Card payments run on Visa and Mastercard alongside Meeza, the domestic scheme launched by the Central Bank of Egypt and Egyptian Banks Company: Meeza now accounts for more than half of all cards issued in the country and works for in-store, online and government payments locally.

InstaPay, the app on top of the CBE's Instant Payment Network (live since 2022), lets customers move money between bank accounts, wallets and Meeza cards in real time using just a mobile number or an name@instapay address — it has become a default way to pay merchants and people directly from a bank account. Alongside it, mobile wallets and the international express-checkout wallets (Apple Pay and Google Pay, both now live on Meeza) cover tap-to-pay and one-tap online checkout.

Buy Now, Pay Later is unusually large in Egypt. ValU (EFG, since 2017) and Souhoola give shoppers an instant credit limit and split purchases — from electronics to school fees — into flexible installments of up to ~60 months, with quick remote approval and an optional down payment. Aman, Forsa, Halan and Premium Card round out a deep local financing market that sits next to cards at most checkouts.

Two facts shape every enterprise checkout here. First, cash is still king at the door: cash on delivery remains roughly 40% of e-commerce, and Fawry's vast agent and kiosk network lets shoppers pay for online orders in cash anywhere in the country. Second, credit card penetration sits near 3%, and the CBE has tightened the use of internationally-enabled cards for cross-border spend. A foreign card-only checkout reaches a sliver of the market and authorizes poorly — winning Egypt means accepting the local rails above, locally.