Egypt’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, together with the entrepreneurship sector, account for around 45% of the country’s economic activity, according to Mostafa Ismail Hassan, CEO of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA).
Speaking at the first annual conference of the Financial Regulatory Authority’s regulatory sandbox in Cairo, Ismail said MSMEDA has supported financing for the sector for 35 years.
He described innovation as essential to sustainable economic growth, particularly through more efficient resource use, higher productivity and new approaches to financial and non-financial services.
Ismail said expanding access to finance is a key requirement for the sector’s growth. MSMEDA is therefore working on digital and alternative financing tools designed to make services easier to access, less expensive and more effective, the company said.
The agency is also developing new methods to assess borrowers’ ability to repay. These include using open banking transactions, digital activity and alternative data to build creditworthiness assessments.
Ismail said the FRA’s regulatory sandbox provides startups with a controlled environment to test technology solutions and digital financing models while protecting users. MSMEDA aims to work more closely with the sandbox and other innovation-focused institutions to test new financing mechanisms in practice, including solutions for young people and women.
Source: Alborsa
