Egypt Post launches new financial services at Cairo ICT 2009
Egypt Post has launched new financial services, meeting the needs of different social segments of a wide spectrum of Egypt Post customers.
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Egypt Post harnesses technology
World Mail Review interviews Eng. Alaa Fahmy, Chairman of Egypt Post. November 2008
Read MoreWestern Union and Orascom Telecom join forces to pilot mobile money transfer service
The Western Union Company announced that it has created an alliance with Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. (“Orascom Telecom”), one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Orascom Telecom and Western Union plan to work together to introduce mobile remittance services in select markets. The services aim to make low-principal, high-frequency remittances more convenient to the millions of consumers who send money every day.
The mobile money transfer service connects mobile operators to Western Union’s for processing cross-border remittances. Once connected to Western Union’s service, mobile operators use their own “mobile wallet” software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union’s global remittance network. The Mobile Money Transfer service enables consumers to transfer money to or from mobile wallets and is being introduced into the global network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.
Arab countries agree to start money transfer exchanges
In Geneva to attend the 24th Universal Postal Congress, the postal leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen signed an agreement that will see them start exchanging money transfers electronically.
As with other regional projects, the money transfer service relies on the UPU’s IFS application and international financial network.
Launched by the Arab League and implemented by a regional steering committee chaired by Emirates Post, the project, also supported by the French Post, will allow the postal operators involved to exchange money orders on a multilateral basis from now on.
The new service furthers the UPU’s efforts to improve access to secure and reliable money transfer services through formal channels for rural populations, and especially for migrant workers.
Explains Emirate Post’s Nasser Fathi Sadiq Qaddoumi, Chairman of the steering committee: The multilateral agreement is giving the Arab region – with some countries in Asia and others in Africa – a push to provide better services to migrant workers. For example, more than 80 pct of the United Arab Emirates population of 5.8 million people consists of foreigners, and the situation in other Gulf countries is not much different, says Qaddoumi.
Other Arab countries said they would join the regional network by the end of this year.
A similar regional project is expected to start next week with countries from North Eastern Africa.
Read MoreENPO develops postal investments (Egypt)
As a means to expand the postal infrastructure in Egypt, the Egyptian National Post Organization (ENPO) announced the establishment of the first integrated pan-Arab post network under the auspices of the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers.
The postal network is expected to act as an umbrella under which Arab postal organizations cooperate to develop the sector and contribute to on-going socioeconomic development among the member states in the network.
Another purpose is to establish an Arab common market capable of competing in global markets and setting socio-economic development strategies in the member countries, he added.
The network project makes use of the geographical location in offering logistical solutions and putting into action the agreements signed among member Arab countries.
The project will also help put future strategies to refresh mail and financial services, while making use of e-commerce applications and state-of-the-art technologies.
The mechanisms of carrying out the project depend on a number of tracks that include organizing a periodic international forum to demonstrate the Arab experiences in the postal sector. This step also encompasses holding bilateral and multilateral meetings besides organizing any required actual and virtual workshops where experiences and views can be exchanged.
A database for the Arab post sector will also be designed to help empower the decision-making process and formulate the strategic guidelines of the network and its member countries.
Online forums will also be developed to facilitate information exchange among the member countries and pave the way for the private sector and civil organizations to take part in the activities of the post sector.
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