Traditionally, people living with disabilities, who represent over 15% of the world’s population, have faced major challenges in accessing financial services.

In Egypt, a 2021 Central Bank of Egypt directive compelled the country’s banks to upgrade their infrastructure to accommodate persons living with disabilities. This includes providing wheelchair-friendly access; height-adjusted ATMs with built-in voice instruction; bank documentation in braille; and staff trained in sign language.

Khaled Bassiouny, who heads up the Financial Inclusion Department at the Central Bank and helped develop the 2021 directive, says “disabled people are of a significant importance that is certainly underserved. This requires intervention on the policy level to facilitate and ease their access to financial services and provide them with fair, quality, and affordable products, based on a customer-centric approach.”

The project was a result of extensive research, involving data analysis and partnerships with governmental agencies and NGOs through meetings, focus group discussions and interviews with the disabled community to identify the challenges they face in accessing financial services.

By the end of 2022, the CBE had already equipped 15% of existing branches, 19% of the ATMs, and trained 70% of the targeted branches’ staff in assisting customers living with disabilities. Many Egyptian banks now also offer preferential interest rates to people living with disabilities and have started accepting stamps and fingerprinting as alternatives to signature identification and authorization.

CBE’s achievements are encouraging, but it doesn’t end there, says Mr Bassiouny. “It is crucial for the Central Bank of Egypt – while setting inclusive policies for financial inclusion – to economically empower the most vulnerable segments. Those segments include women, youth, MSMEs, as well as people with disabilities.”