The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is set to introduce a card tokenization system in the first quarter of 2025, as announced by Ehab Nasr, Assistant Sub-Governor for Payment Systems and Services, during the 11th Digital Payments, Financial Inclusion, and Digital Banking (PAFIX) Conference. The conference, part of the Cairo ICT exhibition held from 17 to 20 November held the Egypt International Exhibition Center in New Cairo, highlighted Egypt’s advancements in digital payment systems. Card tokenization replaces traditional card numbers with temporary tokens stored on digital devices or platforms. This method enhances transaction security by ensuring merchants never access the actual card details, reducing fraud risks and enabling smoother digital payments. Nasr detailed Egypt’s accelerating progress in digital payments, projecting the total value of electronic transactions to surpass EGP 22 trillion by the end of 2024—a significant increase from EGP 7 trillion in 2021. Similarly, the number of transactions is anticipated to reach six billion by year-end, up from one billion just three years earlier. Egypt’s banking sector has also seen notable expansion. By September 2024, the number of banking cards issued exceeded 67 million, marking a 30 percent growth…
