Arab Finance: After three years of providing the service for free Instabay For instant transfers for money and inquiring about the balance, the account was revealed starting from the first of next April for the first time since its inauguration 3 years ago.
The Central Bank of Egypt explained that the fees are aimed at improving the quality of services to ensure the sustainability of operations efficiently and high quality.
The network has set the new fees for conversion through the “Instabai” application to be 0.1% of the transaction value, with a minimum of 50 piasters and a maximum of 20 Egyptian pounds per treatment.
The application will also allow 10 inquiries about the balance or detection of the short account for free for each customer, provided that a fee of 50 piasters is applied to each additional inquiry.
Experts in the field of technology and digital transformation considered that Instabay application He contributed to spreading the culture of digital transformation, and using electronic payment methods, explaining that the philosophy of providing its services for free contributed to increasing the number of its users during the past three years.
Expectations to turn the Instabai application to an innerous payment in the future
For his part, Dr. Mohamed Azzam, a consultant technology management, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Technology Management, said that the Instabai application was a great success as a highly secure and easy -to -use application, and it is used by millions of Egyptians during their daily financial transactions, as the application contributed to solving many payment problems, and transferring money as the application allows the transfer of funds between different bank accounts as well as electronic portfolios.
Azzam stressed, in exclusive statements to Arab Finance that the Instabai application appeared after the spread of the Corona's pandemic because of the closure it caused, and divergence among people, expecting the application in the near future to turn into an inappropriate way like Apple Bey, given that it is an easy and fast, and safe application at the same time.
On the idea of ​​imposing fees on the part of the Central Bank of Egypt on financial transfers, and inquiring about the balance after a certain number of operations, Azzam explained that imposing financial fees already exists in the transactions of funding between banks, as well as in postal remittances, and I believe that the fees imposed on the Instabai application are simple fees ranging from one per thousand and starts from half a pound to 20 pounds as a maximum, and if I demand that it be reduced from the current percentage to encourage Users to use the application extensively, and the experience will appear during the coming period the extent of the number of users affected by imposing these financial fees on financial transfers using the application.
Azzam pointed out that more than 80% of Egyptians use the Internet and more than 60% of them use electronic payment and purchase means through electronic means, which confirms the spread of technology and its importance among Egyptians, as the percentage of financial inclusion reached more than 70% in Egypt while the global percentage is 85%, which indicates that we are approaching global lineage, pointing out that electronic culture has begun to take root among many Egyptians, and became concerns some of some Technology uses are lower due to the safe and high confidence in these means than before.
Instabai application needs to impose fees so that it does not become a burden on the financial sector
While Muhammad Al -Harthy, a technology and information security consultant, says that the Instabai application is one of the applications that have proven efficient during the past three years since its inauguration on March 22, 2022, and it is important to impose simple fees on some of its services to face some burdens and so that it is not a burden on the financial sector as well as for its continuation, sustainability and development.
Al -Harthi expected that other services will be added during the coming period to the Instabai application after imposing these financial fees on the application starting from the beginning of next April, as it is expected that these funds will be used to develop the infrastructure of the application, as well as in the expansion of the services provided.
Al -Harthi explained that the Instabai application did not have problems related to the confidentiality of data or the confidentiality of accounts, which strengthened confidence in it.
Expectations to impose fees on transferring money from Egyptians abroad
For his part, Mustafa Al -Mallah, the founding partner of the X APES company for digital transformation services, expected that some financial fees are imposed on transfer services for Egyptians abroad, as it is still free so far through the Instabai application, indicating that it is natural that it is natural for payment fees on money transfer services such as the Western Union service, pointing out that the Instabai application allowed the state to impose central control on the financial situation. Users provided faster and safer financial services.
Al -Mallah added that the fees imposed by the Instabai application are still less than the financial fees that are imposed on the electronic portfolios services. Also, one of the most prominent advantages of the Instabai application is the instant transfer of funds compared to bank transfer through bank applications, which may take more than a day excluded imposing financial fees from banks for electronic transfer of funds from one bank to another where banks actually get financial fees from their customers in exchange for opening bank accounts.
According to the official website of the Egyptian Central Bank, the instant payments network is a national system to link all banks operating within the Arab Republic of Egypt, where the network is one of the most important technical achievements that serve the infrastructure of financial technology as it depends on the latest inter -operating systems to link banks through a digital infrastructure that allows integration with financial technology companies and create huge opportunities to provide innovative solutions to all groups of society, has been done, has been done The actual launch of the system on March 22, 2022
The network provides instantaneous conversions and some other services, around the clock and throughout the week, including official holidays.
The number of users of the “Instabai” application reached more than 12 million users by the end of 2024, and through this update, the network aims to support the development of digital infrastructure and work to launch new services and features that meet the needs of users, and to ensure the continued provision of network services and the “Instabai” application with the highest international quality standards, in line with the vision of the Central Bank of Egypt towards digital transformation.
According to the data of the Central Bank of Egypt, the rates of financial inclusion in Egypt continued its upward direction; To become one of the best rates at the level of the counterpart countries, as the number of citizens who possess and use active accounts that enable them to conduct financial transactions- whether in banks, mail, mobile portfolios or paid cards in advance- about 52 million citizens out of a total of 69.6 million citizens (in the age group 15 years or more), knowing that the percentage of financial inclusion includes only citizens who use their accounts so that they can manage their money properly.
Financial inclusion rates in Egypt
Financial inclusion rates increased to 74.8% at the end of 2024 compared to about 70.7% by the end of 2023, and at a growth rate of 204% during the period from 2016 to 2024, despite the breadth of the base of citizens who are entitled to open financial accounts, after the Central Bank’s instructions are issued to amend the age of opening bank accounts to 15 years instead of 16 years in line with the amendment of the age of issuing the national ID card.
The latest report of the telecommunications sector indicators, issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, also revealed that the number of Internet users by mobile “mobile internet” jumped to about 82.51 million customers by the end of August 2024, compared to about 74.57 million customers over the same period 2023 with an annual growth rate of 10.64%, an increase of about 7.94 million new users.
According to the data of the central bank, the system witnessed a significant increase in the volume of transactions executed through it – amounting to approximately 1.5 billion transactions of up to 2.9 trillion pounds during the year 2024 – and the number of service users reached approximately 12.5 million customers.
The volume of financial transactions through the use of the Instabai application was 2.7 trillion pounds during the year 2024, an increase of 215% compared to 855 billion pounds in 2023, with 4700% growth compared to 2022.
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