Fawry expands its Heya Fawry initiative to increase women’s access to digital financial services
Fawry, a digital transformation and e-payment network, has announced the expansion of the ‘Heya Fawry’ initiative to increase poor and disadvantaged women’s access to life-enhancing digital financial services and greater economic opportunities.
Heya-Fawry is an initiative in collaboration with the Arab women enterprise fund, Baheya, AXA, and Unilever to empower women, increase their opportunities in the financial market and help them to climb up the financial inclusion pyramid in Egypt.
The expansion was made possible through the cross-sector collaboration between Fawry, Unilever, Lead Foundation, and funding support from the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) via the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund Program (AWEF).
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“We are pleased with the great continued success that Heya Fawry has achieved, as well as its contribution to improving the conditions of low-income and disadvantaged women in Egypt,” said Ahmed Fahmy, Head of Partnerships at Fawry.
“We also stand with the Egyptian government to accelerate digital transformation and promote financial inclusion.“
Now on its third consecutive year, the initiative aims to help women gain access to greater job opportunities by becoming Heya Fawry agents while providing life-enhancing financial services to predominantly unbanked female customers.
“While AWEF may have served as a catalyst to promote women’s economic empowerment and inclusion, it was only due to the commitment, vision, and dedication of its partners that the “Heya Fawry” initiative has reached this level of success,” said Yomna Mustafa, Country Director at AWEF.
Ultimately, Heya Fawry creates new revenue streams for low-income women who can now further contribute to their household’s income well-being while participating in the Egyptian economy.
“Unilever is proud to participate in this distinguished initiative for the third year in a row. Unilever provides products to Heya Fawry agents, but we also work on developing their marketing & management capabilities, to ensure sustainable incomes,” Islam Abdel-Raouf, Alexandria regional sales and Emerging Channels Sector Manager at Unilever said.
As part of the second phase of the initiative, Heya Fawry was joined by Lead Foundation, a preeminent Egyptian Microfinance Institution, which designed a dedicated Heya Fawry Microfinance Program and avails microloans to selected beneficiaries, via digital means.
“Believing in our mission to provide poor & low-income entrepreneurs, with sustainable access to quality microfinance services that address their needs, Lead Foundation saw in Heya Fawry a great opportunity that will suit the needs of ambitious female micro-entrepreneurs who work from home or manage a shop,” added Sandy Salama, Marketing and Communications Manager at Lead Foundation.
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The first phase of the Heya Fawry initiative built upon synergies between four “Core Partners”, Fawry, AWEF, AXA Insurance who offered medical and life insurance services free of charge for 3 years, as well as Unilever, who trained Heya Fawry agents to become successful retailers of well-known home care, beauty and food brands.
Fawry is an Egypt-based company that provides an electronic payment network. The company allows users to pay bills in multiple channels, such as online, using automated teller machines, mobile wallets, and retail points.
Meanwhile, Fawry for Banking and Payment Technology Services is set to purchase a Banque Misr’s 15% stake in its subsidiary Fawry Plus Banking Services.
Based on the independent financial advisor’s fair value report, Fawry will buy 14 million shares at 1.15 per each. Fawry signed an agreement with Nasser Social Bank in order to ease the process of disbursement of pension, salaries, and expenses from Fawry’s outlets.
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