Under these incentives, Egyptian pound-backed transactions made online will be exempted from all fees and commissions.

Also, all fees and commissions on transactions made through the national Instant Payment Network (IPN) and its related mobile app Instapay powered by the CBE, will be waived.

The CBE said that the new incentives are the implementation of the strategy of the National Council of Payments, which is chaired by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Since it was launched in April, transactions made through the IPN have increased in value to EGP 45 billion with 1.2 million clients, the CBE said.

In addition, fees for activating e-collection services will also be waived for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to encourage the use of digital financial services.

The CBE also set a new pricing policy for transfers made among mobile e-wallets.

The CBE sets a maximum fee of EGP 1 for transfers made between two mobile e-wallets that belong to the same service provider, while it sets a maximum of an EGP 15 for transfers that are not affiliated with the same service provider.

There were about 29.5 million e-wallet accounts in the country by the end of October 2022, according to the CBE.

88 per cent of people in Egypt used at least one emerging payment method in 2022, 35 per cent of whom used tappable smartphone mobile wallets while 27 per cent used a digital money transfer app, while the remaining 24 per cent used QR codes, according to a report by Master Card issued in August

Consumers are also making purchases in increasingly diverse ways, including through voice assistant and social media apps, the report said.