EgyptWhere old and new meet

Egypt’s economy is finding steadier ground. Inflation and pressure on the currency have eased since the 2023 crisis. The picture is still settling, but it looks very different from two years ago.

The rules around payments are changing too. In June 2025, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) introduced its first formal licensing rules for payment system operators and providers. For international merchants, there’s an important note: card payments have to be processed locally, by a local entity. Without one, accepting cards in Egypt isn’t really an option yet.

This, and much more, is part of Egypt Vision 2030, which aims to move more of the economy away from cash and bring more of the country’s large informal sector into the formal financial system.

And as that happens, Fawry, Meeza and InstaPay are becoming part of the same payment landscape, each serving a different need. One lets a shopper take an online purchase into a local shop and pay in cash. Another puts salaries and pensions onto local cards and wallets. Another lets people move money instantly from their phones. Reaching Egypt means understanding how these different ways to pay fit into people’s lives.

Fawry remains Egypt’s single biggest payment method by volume. At checkout, shoppers get a voucher code that they can settle in cash at one of Fawry’s 300,000+ retail points, or through the MyFawry app, where the same voucher can be paid by card or eWallet instead.

That flexibility is what makes Fawry more than a cardless workaround: it’s a bridge between cash-first habits and Egypt’s growing digital-payment base. We expect Fawry’s volume to grow from US$ 8.8 billion in 2026 to US$ 10.8 billion by 2028.

Meeza, the CBE’s national card and wallet scheme, is now how the state pays its people. Salaries, pensions and subsidies land straight to Meeza cards and eWallets, bringing millions of Egyptians into the digital economy in the process. eWallets are the fastest-growing payment category in the Egyptian market, anticipated to grow from US$ 2.6 billion in 2026 to US$ 3.7 billion in 2028. Meeza is central to that growth.

Scale on this level doesn’t come with an open door, though: local card processing requires a local entity, so reaching Meeza’s user base means operating through an on-the-ground presence rather than a cross-border workaround.

While InstaPay began with instant P2P transfers, it is now moving beyond sending money between people and closer to everyday commerce. With 16 million users and EGP 2.4 trillion (US$ 47 billion) a year in transfers, its expansion into business payments and QR acceptance could make instant account-to-account payments a much more familiar part of how Egyptians pay.

BNPL isn’t just another checkout button in Egypt. For some shoppers, it is their first route into structured credit. In this space, ValU is one of the leading BNPL providers in the market.

Fewer than 5% of Egyptians hold a credit card, and a large share of the population (including young adults with no credit history, freelancers and informal workers) has never qualified for one. For many of these shoppers, BNPL is the first form of structured credit anyone has ever offered them.

Egypt’s eCommerce market is projected to US$ 16.2 billion in 2026 to US$ 20.3 billion by 2028, one of the biggest rates of growth anywhere in the Middle East and Africa. Retail, travel, and ride-hailing and delivery apps are leading that growth, carried by a generation that is increasingly mobile-first in their payment habits. For merchants, the opportunity is less about choosing the “right” payment method and more about being present wherever the customer already feels comfortable paying.