28,000 prepaid Meeza cards to be issued for state employees by October: Finance minister
Doaa A.Moneim, , Tuesday 29 Sep 2020
With the Meeza cards, employees can make online purchases and use them at ATMs to withdraw cash or pay dues


The electronic salary cards of some 28,000 state employees will be switched to prepaid Meeza electronic cards by October, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announced on Tuesday.

With the Meeza cards, employees can make online purchases and use them at ATMs to withdraw cash or pay dues.

The state is currently implementing the second pilot phase of switching all state employees’ salary cards to Meeza cards, which is being carried out in Marsa Matrouh, Port Said, the Red Sea governorate, South Sinai, Alexandria, Luxor, Daqahliya, Assiut, Gharbiya and Fayoum.

Finance ministry official Emad Abdel-hamid said that the ministry targets switching 5 million state employees’ electronic salary cards to prepaid Meeza cards, free of charge, in collaboration with the banking sector.

He added that the electronic payment and collection system adopted by the finance ministry targets saving 25 percent of the currency issuance cost and about 50 percent of the time it takes to provide services, as well as reducing red tape, which will improve Egypt’s ranking in international indexes, especially those that focus on ease of doing business and transparency.

He also noted that the ministry has been implementing the digital transformation project for financial transactions since 2007, which contributes to achieving Egypt’s strategic vision 2030.

Director of the electronic payment and collection unit at the finance ministry Dalia Fawzi revealed that Banque du Caire, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Misr Banque, the Housing and Development Bank, the Arab African International Bank, Emirates NBD, the Arab Banking Corporation, the United Bank, the Commercial International Bank, and Egypt Post are participants in implementing the second pilot phase.

On 16 September, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Egypt inked a cooperation protocol with the Egyptian Banks Company for Technological Advancement SAE, which allows NBK Egypt to launch the Meeza prepaid card.

Through this action, NBK will be the second bank that is operating in Egypt to launch Meeza cards after the National Bank of Egypt (NBE).

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/386156.aspx