Minister of Youth and Sports Gohar Nabil and Islam Azzam, Chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to empower young Egyptians and develop their capabilities in entrepreneurship, innovation, financial technology (fintech) and non-banking financial services.
The agreement aims to help transform promising ideas into viable, scalable businesses through the FRA’s FinTech Regulatory Sandbox.
The MoU was signed by Mohamed Saeed Mazen, Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Ahmed Khalifa, Executive Director of the FRA’s Regulatory Sandbox.
The agreement seeks to strengthen co-operation between the two parties to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among young people. It also provides for training and awareness programmes, workshops and introductory sessions across Egypt’s governorates, focusing on fintech, non-banking financial services, financial literacy and awareness, and business model development. These initiatives aim to equip young people with the skills needed to establish and expand their projects in line with market requirements.
Co-operation will also support the implementation and development of innovative youth-led ideas and projects through the FRA’s regulatory sandbox. Planned activities include events, competitions and innovation challenges, as well as guidance and mentorship for entrepreneurs with promising ideas. The agreement also provides for connecting entrepreneurs with business incubators, accelerators and capacity-building programmes, while facilitating access for eligible projects to investors, venture capital funds and relevant funding networks in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
The agreed areas of co-operation include promoting innovation across non-banking financial services, including insurance, non-banking finance, financial leasing, factoring and capital markets.
The two parties will also raise awareness of the FRA’s regulatory sandbox, which provides a supervised testing environment for eligible projects and technology-based solutions to develop and test their business models and products in line with applicable rules and procedures.
Gohar Nabil, Minister of Youth and Sports, said that supporting young people, empowering them economically and creating new opportunities for their ideas and projects were key pillars of the Egyptian state’s efforts to develop human capital and achieve sustainable development. He stressed the importance of strengthening co-operation between the ministry and the FRA to create an enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship.
For his part, Azzam said the MoU marked an important step towards expanding co-operation with national institutions to empower young people and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. He stressed that fostering an environment conducive to new ideas required co-ordinated efforts, the exchange of expertise and stronger links between innovators and the organisations, knowledge and opportunities needed to turn their ideas into viable, sustainable businesses.
Azzam noted that around 75 companies in Egypt currently provide non-banking financial services using fintech, reflecting the sector’s adaptation to evolving requirements and the transformation of financial services and operating mechanisms at both local and international levels.
He also underscored the importance of extending co-operation to young people across all governorates rather than concentrating efforts in Greater Cairo. He pointed to the growing share of investors aged between 18 and 40 in the non-banking financial sector, noting that they accounted for 80% of new stock market investors last year and more than 70% of investors in precious metals investment funds.
The MoU establishes a framework for implementing co-operation within the respective mandates of the two parties. It aims to increase the contribution of entrepreneurs to the non-banking financial sector and the national economy by supporting innovative ideas and startups and helping them maximise their value and returns.