President of the National Council for Women, Dr. Maya Morsi, received Susan Mikhail, the Regional Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) for Arab countries, to discuss ways of cooperation with various regional institutions, including the Arab Women’s Organization and the League of Arab States.
The meeting also aimed to explore ways to achieve economic empowerment for women in pastoral economics, green economy, and information technology, as well as in the educational system for teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Morsi further discussed the importance of documenting Egypt’s successful experience in the field of financial inclusion for women.
She explained that the Central Bank of Egypt recently announced in a case study of women’s financial inclusion in Egypt that the growth rate of women’s financial inclusion in the period from 2016 to 2022 reached 210%, while the growth rate of women’s and men’s financial inclusion in the same period is 147%.
The bank’s revelation shows the extent of interest in women during that period, which led to lessening the gap between women and men.
Moreover, the NCW President reviewed what the “Tahweesha” Initiative, or the projects of digital savings and lending groups, have successfully achieved in the file of financial inclusion for women, one of the most important initiatives implemented by the Council.
She emphasized that “Tahweesha” is the fruit of cooperation between the National Council for Women and the Central Bank of Egypt since 2017, where the integration of “Tahwisha” in the National Project for the Development of the Egyptian Family, noting that the goal of the initiative is to include Egyptian women in rural villages economically and financially and integrate them into the official banking system, raise awareness and spread financial culture for targeted women, eradicate digital illiteracy and provide them with high-quality financial services, through the use of technology and digitization of the working mechanism of savings and loan groups.
Morsi also pointed out that to minimize women’s fear of dealing with banks, a “bank transfer” or banking simulation was organized to educate women about these services in a new, simplified way.