Women in the countryside make up 60 per cent of Egypt’s females but they don’t enjoy the advantage of having a bank nearby. This is why the state launched Tahweesha (Saving), an application to help Egypt’s women residing in villages to acquire some banking services such as savings and loans without having to travel to the city.

At its core, the application is meant to enhance and accelerate financial inclusion and empower female villagers. It was launched in March 2022 at the Women’s Conference and has since garnered presidential attention.

Tahweesha relies on the cooperation of women in villages to form savings and borrowing groups. Each group comprises 15 to 25 women, with savings based on a share system in which the minimum contribution is LE20 and the maximum is five-fold the value of the share. The loan value available to each member is up to three times their savings, determined by the group’s priorities and self-established regulations.

“It is not easy for rural women to reach a bank branch or to understand the importance of having a bank account. Therefore, we developed Tahweesha as a savings, borrowing, and investment initiative,” Inji Al-Yamani, the financial inclusion officer at the National Council for Women, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

“Tahweesha is not just about training for entrepreneurship or starting small projects; it’s about changing culture and raising awareness. We teach women how to set their priorities, create budgets for themselves and their household expenses, and develop short, medium, and long-term plans while committing to saving every week,” Al-Yamani added.

A woman can start saving with a minimum of LE20 per week for one share and up to five shares within the group. The value of each share is determined by the women in the group who may agree on an amount of LE50 or LE100 depending on their financial capability and by mutual agreement, Al-Yamani explained.

“We spend a significant amount of time training women on saving and how to acquire quick loans. The training helps change the culture within the village, making saving a way of life,” said Al-Yamani, adding that they support the women step by step through a financial facilitator, trained by the council, who also resides in the village. “We were delighted to see children influenced by their mothers and their enthusiasm for this culture.” The children attend the weekly awareness sessions with their mothers, she added.

The financial facilitator helps village women understand the concept of Tahweesha and receives the loans from the bank and hands them to the women.

Women save their money via Meeza Tahweesha card. When a loan is requested, the sum is transferred from the bank account to the financial facilitator’s card.

Tahweesha was designed under the Financial Inclusion Programme of the National Council for Women in partnership with the Central Bank of Egypt, Al-Yamani said, adding that “the partnership is the first of its kind in the world.”

The application replaces the traditional iron money box used for saving money.

The programme targets 1.2 million women in its first phase. The number is expected to increase following the call last month by Maya Morsi, the minister of social solidarity, to encourage beneficiaries of the Takaful and Karama programmes to participate, according to Al-Yamani.

Beneficiaries will continue to receive Takaful and Karama cash assistance while participating in Tahweesha, Morsi said.

Al-Yamani noted that Tahweesha was initially funded by the Central Bank of Egypt and several international entities, including the United Nations, the European Union and the Dutch Embassy in Cairo. The largest funder now is the Egyptian state, through the National Project for the Development of the Egyptian Family, which stated that women play an integral role in economic growth and production.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly