ماستركارد تلتزم بضمّ مليار شخص و50 مليون شركة صغيرة و25 مليون رائدة أعمال إلى الاقتصاد الرقمي بحلول 2025

• Expand financial inclusion efforts that have succeeded in including 500 million people without financial services over the past five years
• Foster technology and partnerships to provide support, ideas, and access to businesses and communities
• MasterCard in Egypt has contributed to digitizing government salaries and enhancing the skills of female entrepreneurs

CAIRO, Egypt, May 18, 2020 - The health and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the need to support vulnerable groups in society, many of whom have been disproportionately affected. In light of the current global crisis, Mastercard has expanded its global commitment to financial inclusion, pledging to bring 1 billion people and 50 million small and micro businesses into the digital economy by 2025. As part of these efforts, the company is directly focused on providing solutions that help 25 million women entrepreneurs grow their businesses. .

This commitment is an extension of Mastercard's ongoing efforts to address the health and economic repercussions that have affected people around the world as a result of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including in Egypt.

In this context, Magdy Hassan, General Manager of MasterCard in Egypt and Pakistan, said : “Financial inclusion is our top priority to achieve a sustainable economic recovery throughout Egypt, and we believe in the right of every citizen to obtain the many benefits offered by digital payments, including convenience, ease, trust and security. In conducting all daily financial transactions. To achieve this, we pledge to do our best to enable everyone to join the digital economy system in the country, as this will create opportunities for small businesses and will help achieve prosperity in society. And through our technology, our partnerships with the private sector, and our continuous cooperation with the government We look forward to building a better future by developing innovative, commercially viable and socially impactful solutions.”

At the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group meetings in the spring of 2015, MasterCard made a commitment to bring 500 million people out of the financial system into the financial system. This goal was crowned with success after implementing more than 350 innovative programs in 80 countries around the world.

MasterCard’s efforts to achieve financial inclusion in Egypt include many innovative initiatives, including a project that is the first of its kind in the country, where MasterCard cooperated with “Levi Strauss & Co” to digitize the wages of more than 10,000 Egyptian workers in a garment factory in Port Said, where they united their efforts To promote financial inclusion and economic security for these workers. MasterCard has also partnered with Injaz Egypt to provide Egyptian women entrepreneurs with the opportunity to develop their business skills and obtain seed funding for their businesses.

In addition, MasterCard has worked closely with the Egyptian government on several ambitious programs to advance financial inclusion and spread digital payments, and the company has collaborated with the Central Bank of Egypt to create the first mobile payment system, which currently benefits around 14 million smart wallet users. Cooperation with the Ministry of Finance also resulted in the launch of salary payment cards for six million government employees, as they can now use these cards to conduct fast, secure and convenient electronic transactions. The Ministry of Social Solidarity, in cooperation with MasterCard, launched a digital monthly alimony program for more than 60,000 women in Egypt.

To achieve the goal of bringing one billion people into the digital economy, intensive efforts are needed that include accelerating the work being done in enabling government payment solutions, digitizing salaries and wages for workers in the private sector, strengthening partnerships with mobile network operators, and developing solutions for daily and temporary employment. Expanding efforts with financial technology companies, platforms, wallets and digital applications, providing solutions that meet the needs of financially vulnerable groups, and expanding the City Key and Community Pass programs.

This initiative builds on MasterCard's ongoing efforts to support comprehensive recovery by leveraging the company's technology, capabilities, and global reach, including:

• In the early weeks of the global health crisis, Mastercard pledged up to $25 million in seed funding to establish the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Fund, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and others, to accelerate efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. By discovering, developing and expanding therapies and applying them globally.
• MasterCard is committed to providing $250 million over the next five years to support small businesses in a number of markets financially and technologically, and in developing products and services, enhancing their business and the financial security of their employees.
• Mastercard is strengthening its network to provide support to governments around the world in areas such as providing data-driven insights to inform policymakers about the economic impact of the pandemic, increasing the speed and efficiency of aid disbursement to communities and businesses most in need, developing emergency fundraising platforms, and working With governments to help business owners and consumers assess cyber vulnerabilities.