The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) launched on Saturday the “COVID-19 Innovation Sprint”, in cooperation with the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), to address the challenges arising from the pandemic through financial technology solutions.
The initiative will stimulate entrepreneurship and startups to to create financial technology applications that meet the needs of banking and financial institutions in light of the repercussions of the pandemic.
The innovation race will be held for a period of three days in March, and admission will take place during the period from January 19 to February 19, through the FinTech Egypt platform.
Rami Aboul Naga, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank said that the initiative comes in line with the bank’s objectives and the financial technology strategy, that was announced in 2019, as part of Egypt’s transformation into a regional hub for financial technology in Africa and the Middle East.
“This initiative represents a promising opportunity for entrepreneurs and start-ups to present their innovative products to banks and financial institutions to help facilitate the provision of banking and financial services to customers,” Aboul Naga added.
Entrepreneurs and representatives of emerging companies with creative and applicable ideas will be selected. Virtual workshops and seminars will be held over the Internet that bring them together with representatives of banks and banking institutions with the aim of reaching prototypes for implementable applications.
It is worth noting that the Innovation Sprint is supervised by the FSD Africa Foundation and the organization DFS Lab with the aim of strengthening international cooperation in financial technology and innovation activities in light of the continuing repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.
