National Bank of Kuwait – NBK-Egypt launches the Meeza card

By Edil Corneille

The National Bank of Kuwait – NBK-Egypt signed a cooperation protocol with the Egyptian Banks Company for Technological Advancement SAE (EBC) and announced the launch of the Meeza prepaid card.

Yasser El-Tayeb, NBK – Egypt Vice Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, said that the move comes along with the bank’s strategy to boost its range of banking products, which contributes to expanding the umbrella of using electronic payment methods and channels. He added that issuance of the Meeza card falls in-line with the Government’s and the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) direction in supporting financial inclusion and integrating new categories of customers in the official banking system. This would help in the implementation of cash withdrawal transactions and the enforcement of digital cashless society plan as one of the objectives of the sustainable development strategy in line with the vision of Egypt 2030.

El-Tayeb further noted that NBK-Egypt targets motivating its customers to use the bank’s electronic payment channels, confirming that the bank’s management spares no effort to support these alternative channels. Also, the bank injects massive investments to develop these channels to satisfy its customers, in addition to providing advanced services meeting all their banking needs. He added that this is part of the bank’s endeavour towards product integration between NBK-Egypt and the parent group in Kuwait in a way to promote the bank’s competitiveness in the Egyptian market.

Amr El Alfy, Head of Business Group at the NBK stated that the Meeza card represents a new link in NBK-Egypt’s advanced electronic services chain, which enables customers whether individuals or companies to perform a variety of banking transactions. An example of these services is the recent approval obtained from the CBE to launch ‘NBK Online Services for Companies’ which came in line with the previously launched service for individuals ‘NBK Online Banking’.

Salma Abou Hussein, Head of Consumer Banking, NBK-Egypt stated that the issuance of the Meeza card is one of the main achievements in the financial inclusion sector, where it falls within CBE’s direction to transform into a digital economy. In addition, the card is considered the first smart payment card that holds the logo of the Electronic Payment Network through the EBC under the aegis umbrella of the CBE.