Written by: Top 50 Women Forum’s team
Gender mainstreaming is vital to achieving a sustainable prosperous community. For that reason, Banque Misr’s role in community well-being is strongly connected to gender equality, beside its keenness on promoting sustainable and inclusive growth.
For the past century, Banque Misr has been taking steps to ensure no one falls behind. In this regard, the bank spearheaded various initiatives to spur prosperity and boost the livelihoods of several society segments.
Along with a practical strategy embracing digital transformation, Banque Misr incorporates diversity and inclusivity into its dynamic strategy. In this regard, Banque Misr constantly ensures significant female representation on its boards; which is considered a rewarding step to outperform and sustain leadership.
Through capacity-building and financial learning, the bank expands its catalytic role in women’s economic empowerment by supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Subsequently, Banque Misr launched, in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the first integrated financing program supporting Egyptian women entrepreneurs “Zaat”.
The three-year partnership launched an innovative program to boost the development of Egypt’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, with a prime focus on women. The program offers a wide variety of financial and non-financial services for female entrepreneurs, including offering needed funding and training sessions, among other business development needs.
The bank also takes the lead in embracing responsible banking principles, contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this regard, Banque Misr sponsored the TOP 50 Women Forum’s “Women Toward Sustainability” seminar.
The seminar was organized in cooperation with the Egyptian Institute of National Planning (INP) and Dcarbon Egypt. It introduced the first climate awareness training for women in business, in support of Egypt’s green economy transition.
As a sponsor of the forum’s seminar, the bank stepped up the sustainability reporting in line with International Sustainability Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The bank also infuses its collaborative efforts to promote Egyptian women’s entrepreneurship and leadership.
Accordingly, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The American University in Cairo (AUC) to qualify and train women entrepreneurs and support them in establishing and scaling up women-led SMEs, in line with Egypt’s financial inclusion strategy.
Banque Misr pioneers in accelerating socioeconomic prosperity, ensuring equal access to formal financial services and products. Additionally, Banque Misr actively celebrates International Women’s Day and acknowledges women’s remarkable achievements in every sector.
During Cop27, the bank developed community-based climate action efforts, empowering women’s role in this regard. As part of Banque Misr’s well-rounded CSR strategy for women empowerment in every sector, it sponsored the professional squash player, Nada Abbas, who is currently ranked 22nd globally.
On the other hand, Banque Misr extends its CSR role in empowering vulnerable women, taking responsibility, in cooperation with its community foundation, to support the livelihoods of rural women and achieve social justice.
Thus, collaborative efforts are exerted to eliminate poverty, facilitate women’s access to formal banking services, and improve the living conditions of women, particularly those living in grassroots areas. That being the case, the bank offers in-kind grants, organizes handicraft workshops, and sponsors handicraft exhibitions.
Ultimately, Banque Misr has been a proactive catalyst for empowering women to drive sustainable development, fully committing to gender equality and women’s empowerment. The bank makes extensive efforts to build an economically stable, sustainable future.
