Ongoing Unrest Threatens Money Transfer Cellular Service in Egypt

The appropriate time is mostly the major factor for the succeeding of any service, it seems that Money transfer via mobile phone service is the victim of activation in the current time ,due to the unrest political situation which we are facing, despite waiting the launch of the service within the last three years, along with the service has faced a great shocking as the users rejected to adopt the service under the political situation which restricted the users for using technological minimalism as the users fear from losing their money in this unrest situation.

An official sources in mobile phone operators have asserted that the current period caused the hard for offering and marketing the service ,especially with the escalation of political events that prompted the companies to delay Ramadan mobile advertising campaigns in the earlier of this month in conjunction with the political violence in the street.

The sources said the market cannot accommodate new services as the users are busy in this current situation and it is hard to adopt any new technology during the current time, expecting that the services will witness a new leap after the stability of the country.

Hazem Hegazy, Head of retail banking and branches of National Bank of Egypt (NBE), has called for the need to offer the new service time before judging them, especially as it applied for the first time in Egypt, and the application comes within the instability events.

Hegazy has emphasized that it is supposed to activate the new service and growing demand from clients during the current period which has seen it difficult to move within the country, but we can not be evaluated in light of the recent period in which they were applied.

Moreover, Mr.Ahmed Faraj Allah, Director of Payment Systems Department at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), has rejected to disclose the reports which the bank received by CBE around the new service, stressing that he has an optimistic expectations for the service, pointing out that the service will meet a great demand during the coming period.

The number of clients will reach about 10 million from the current total population which reach around 84 million and this is a low percentage which reflects the need of retail sector for additional and innovative methods to incorporate new clients within the banking sector.

Housing and Development bank (HDB) has launched the service which own 60 branches to serve its clients in collaboration with Vodafone to be the first clients through the new service, the bank predicated higher deposit portfolio up EGP 9.3 billion by the end of 2013 with 16% boosting in compared to 2012.

Meanwhile, the total subscribers of Vodafone reached 38.2 subscribers and the company is seizing 40.8% from the total market according to the data of National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA).

The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) which has 337 branches and portfolio and deposits worth EGP 278 billion by the end of the last fiscal year, in addition, 3.5 million clients is currently planning to launch the new service in cooperation with Etisalat Egypt which its customers reached 22.9 million subscribers to capture 24.2% from the total market.

The Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (Mobinil)-(EMOB.CA), is offering money transfer via mobile phone service in cooperation with BNP Paribas that has a client base of 200.000 clients dealing with branches network reached 68 branches in the time which the bank’s portfolio deposits up EGP 13.8 billion by the end of the first quarter of this year with 6.2% increase in compared with the last of 2012.

Number of Clients	Number of Branches	Deposit portfolio	Bank
3.5 million clients by 35% of the total clients of banking sector	337 branches	EGP 278 billion by the end of the last FY by 24.2% deposits of the banking sector	National Bank OF Egypt (NBE)
Million customers with 10% of total banking sector clients	60 branches	EGP 9.3 billion expected by the end of 2013 with 0.8% of the total deposits of the banking sector	Housing and Development Bank (HDB)
200.000clients with 2%	68 branches	EGP 13.8 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2013 with 1.2 deposits of the sector	BNP Paribas
10 million clients for the banking sector from the total 84 million Egyptian citizen		EGP 1.15 trillion of the total deposits sector by the end of March	The total amount of the Egyptian banking sector