Girls accounted for 53% of all microfinance beneficiaries in Egypt all over the primary quarter (Q1) of 2026, underscoring their rising position within the nation’s non-banking monetary sector and the significance of girls’s financial empowerment to sustainable construction, in keeping with Islam Azzam, Chairperson of the Monetary Regulatory Authority (FRA).
Talking at a seminar on Monetary Inclusion and Sustainable Building, organised by way of the FRA in partnership with UN Girls, the Nationwide Council for Girls (NCW), the Eu Union and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Azzam stated that round 1.8 million ladies benefited from microfinance all over the duration. They accounted for about 45% of the field’s overall exceptional financing portfolio, which reached EGP 74bn.
The development introduced in combination representatives from monetary establishments, construction companions and mavens specialising in monetary inclusion and sustainable construction.
Azzam stated monetary inclusion has advanced past increasing get admission to to monetary services and products to turn into a key driving force of financial expansion and potency. Broader get admission to to acceptable monetary services and products, he stated, allows other segments of society to support their dwelling requirements whilst supporting Egypt’s nationwide construction objectives.
He added that the FRA continues to support the legislative and regulatory framework governing non-banking monetary actions to increase get admission to to monetary services and products and inspire innovation in merchandise adapted to the wishes of various buyer teams, specifically ladies, younger folks and citizens of underserved and far flung spaces.
Azzam stressed out that bettering monetary literacy stays probably the most authority’s most sensible priorities, describing it as a cornerstone of a success monetary inclusion. He stated the FRA is strengthening cooperation with home and global companions to put in force programmes and tasks geared toward elevating monetary consciousness, bettering folks’ talent to make knowledgeable monetary choices, and lengthening public figuring out in their rights underneath related law and FRA rules.
He additionally highlighted the significance of cooperation with global establishments and construction companions in moving experience and adopting international very best practices, specifically the ones advanced in rising markets, to improve the continuing construction of Egypt’s non-banking monetary services and products sector.
The seminar opened with remarks by way of Rehab Taha, Assistant Chairperson of the FRA, and featured two panel discussions analyzing contemporary trends in monetary inclusion and the position of girls in advancing sustainable construction, along shows showcasing a success tasks and case research.
A view of the seminar
Marwa Alam El Din, Officer-in-Rate of the UN Girls Egypt Nation Place of business, stated that making an investment in ladies’s financial empowerment isn’t just a social crucial but in addition a wise funding that drives inclusive expansion and sustainable construction.
She famous that empowering ladies is going past bettering person livelihoods, contributing as an alternative to more potent households, extra productive communities and expanded alternatives in training, healthcare, first rate paintings and financial participation.
Alam El Din highlighted the Tahwisha programme, applied in partnership with the Nationwide Council for Girls and the Central Financial institution of Egypt (CBE), with improve from the Eu Union and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as a number one type for advancing virtual transformation and fiscal inclusion in rural communities.
She defined that the programme allows ladies to get admission to safe virtual monetary services and products whilst strengthening their monetary control, financial savings and entrepreneurial talents.
She added that, amid accelerating virtual transformation and evolving financial demanding situations, there’s a rising want for cutting edge financing answers that deal with ladies’s particular wishes whilst protective them from monetary exploitation and virtual violence. On this context, she described UN Girls’s partnership with the FRA as specifically vital in strengthening the regulatory framework and selling accountable finance.
The seminar additionally explored the sensible financial and social demanding situations going through construction tasks and tasks. Individuals exchanged reviews and mentioned strategic approaches followed by way of financing establishments to increase ladies’s financial empowerment, reply to evolving financing wishes, support governance frameworks and make sure compliance with lending necessities.
The development was once attended by way of representatives from the FRA, the FRA’s Regional Centre for Sustainable Finance, the Nationwide Council for Girls, UN Girls, the Egyptian Federation for Microfinance, the Micro, Small and Medium Undertaking Building Company (MSMEDA), in addition to monetary establishments, mavens and experts.
