Beyond Financial Inclusion: Charting the Path to Inclusive Growth
April 27 @ 8:30 am - April 28 @ 3:00 pm
Location: Sheraton Cairo Hotel
Date: April 27-28, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM till 3:00 PM
Overview
The Arab banking region is entering a new phase in its financial inclusion journey. Egypt’s achievement of 77.6% financial inclusion—adding over 54 million citizens to the formal financial system—represents not merely a national milestone but a reference point for emerging markets globally. As countries across the Arab world accelerate their own inclusion agendas, the lessons emerging from the Egyptian experience, combined with perspectives from the broader Arab region and international markets, create a rare opportunity for cross-regional dialogue and learning.
As the region prepares for the next horizon, critical questions emerge. How do we move beyond access to genuine economic formalization? What actually works in bringing informal merchants and small enterprises into the formal system? How can sustainability become integral to inclusive growth rather than an add-on compliance exercise? And as digital financial services expand, how do we regulate in ways that protect consumers while enabling innovation? These are not theoretical questions. They are the daily challenges facing financial institutions across the Arab world.
This two-day forum is designed for the professionals tasked with answering them. It brings together heads of financial inclusion, retail banking, MSME lending, risk, compliance, digital channels, and sustainability from across the region to examine what the next five years demand from their institutions. The agenda moves from strategic foresight to operational reality—what succeeded in the previous cycle, what the regulatory trajectory indicates, and how leading institutions are positioning themselves for the phase ahead. For those responsible for shaping their institution’s inclusion agenda, this is the forum to understand what comes next and how to prepare.
Topics of Discussion
Crafting Financial Inclusion Strategy:
Role of financial inclusion in fostering sustainable economic development
Financial Inclusion Strategy 2022-2025 Formation Journey: Demand-side survey, collaborations and partnerships with ministries, authorities & ecosystem enablers to form the financial inclusion strategy and highlighting CBE role in leading & coordinating the efforts
Financial Inclusion Strategy Pillars and target segments
Financial Inclusion 2022-2025 achievements and numbers: Numbers and growth percentages (overall 77.6% with growth 219% from 2016 – women 71.4% with growth 316% from 2016 – Youth 56.8% with growth 79% from 2020)
Financial Inclusion Strategy 2026-2030 Formation: re-conduct the demand-side survey, focus on usage, formulating new regulations to help reach the vision, extending the collaborations between the different stakeholders aiming for a nation-wide strategy, role of the banks in creating consumer-empowering products and services
Digital Innovation: The Engine of Sustainable Inclusion
How leveraging on the digital banking platforms supports accessibility to the unbanked and underserved populations as well as lowers the costs for the financial institutions
The collaborations between banks and fintech companies as well as MNOs to foster digital payments
How the less cash law and InstaPay enable secure, accessible, and affordable financial services hence accelerate sustainable financial inclusion and the digital economy
Digital identity and e-KYC: regulations for easy customer onboarding in progress
From Financial Literacy to Financial Health
Measuring the Financial Literacy gap- Why knowledge doesn’t translate into action.
Creating Financial Literacy programs for different target groups.
Creating a successful Business case through Financial Literacy.
Role of digital financial literacy in combatting financial fraud.
Role of Financial Institutions in enabling lasting financial wellbeing.
Measuring impact of Financial Literacy programs
The Role of Databases in advancing financial inclusion and sustainability
Role of Machine learning & AI in promoting FI data
Capitalizing on the MSMEs financial & non-financial data to formulate an alternative scoring model with the different governmental institutions input: MSMEs credit data and Alternative Scoring Model
Women-led businesses and closing the gender finance gap.
Empowering women entrepreneurs by improving access to finance, networks, and tailored banking services.
Challenges and opportunities for the women-owned and led MSMEs.
Green Finance:
Navigating Legislative & Regulatory Hurdles
Policy Barriers: Identifying laws that slow the green transition.
Regulatory Innovation: Designing flexible frameworks that invite sustainable investment.
Incentivizing Green: Tax policies that channel capital toward sustainability.
A Common Language: The need for unified green project classifications to guide investors.
The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): A Banking Perspective
Assessing the Impact: What CBAM means for exporters to Europe.
Emerging Market Realities: The unique challenges facing developing economies.
From Risk to Opportunity: Investing in renewables and efficiency gains.
A Coordinated Response: How governments and banks can support affected industries.
Innovative Finance: Alternative Data for Credit Assessment for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Data Beyond Credit Bureaus: The promise of alternative data in the Arab region.
How alternative data could support informal sector to access to the financial services
New Data Sources: Utility payments, digital transactions, e-wallets, and POS history.
Privacy First: Protecting customer data in non-traditional lending.
The Credit Bureau Evolution: Behavioral scoring and expanded data access.
Risk Mitigation: The role of credit guarantee schemes in alternative finance.
Digital Transformation & MSME Supply Chain Finance
Enabling Regulation: Central banks as architects of the digital finance ecosystem.
Supply Chain Finance Mechanisms for Sustainable MSMEs.
Platform Power: How supply chain finance platforms enhance corporate liquidity.
Banks as Enablers: Fueling e-commerce and digital adoption.
DFIs as Catalysts: Building capacity and innovating products for supply chain finance.
Optimizing supply chain finance to drive the long-term sustainability of MSMEs
Overview
The Arab banking region is entering a new phase in its financial inclusion journey. Egypt’s achievement of 77.6% financial inclusion—adding over 54 million citizens to the formal financial system—represents not merely a national milestone but a reference point for emerging markets globally. As countries across the Arab world accelerate their own inclusion agendas, the lessons emerging from the Egyptian experience, combined with perspectives from the broader Arab region and international markets, create a rare opportunity for cross-regional dialogue and learning.
As the region prepares for the next horizon, critical questions emerge. How do we move beyond access to genuine economic formalization? What actually works in bringing informal merchants and small enterprises into the formal system? How can sustainability become integral to inclusive growth rather than an add-on compliance exercise? And as digital financial services expand, how do we regulate in ways that protect consumers while enabling innovation? These are not theoretical questions. They are the daily challenges facing financial institutions across the Arab world.
This two-day forum is designed for the professionals tasked with answering them. It brings together heads of financial inclusion, retail banking, MSME lending, risk, compliance, digital channels, and sustainability from across the region to examine what the next five years demand from their institutions. The agenda moves from strategic foresight to operational reality—what succeeded in the previous cycle, what the regulatory trajectory indicates, and how leading institutions are positioning themselves for the phase ahead. For those responsible for shaping their institution’s inclusion agenda, this is the forum to understand what comes next and how to prepare.
Topics of Discussion
Crafting Financial Inclusion Strategy:
Digital Innovation: The Engine of Sustainable Inclusion
From Financial Literacy to Financial Health
The Role of Databases in advancing financial inclusion and sustainability
Green Finance:
Navigating Legislative & Regulatory Hurdles
The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): A Banking Perspective
Innovative Finance: Alternative Data for Credit Assessment for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Digital Transformation & MSME Supply Chain Finance
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