Planning Ministry delegation visits Asyut countryside, discusses availability of banking services

A delegation of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development held recently a workshop in the city of Sahel Saleem in Assiut Governorate.
The workshop dealt with the most important financial, banking services, and activities that banks can provide in the "Decent Life" initiative, and the problems and challenges facing the people of the city in this regard.

The delegation of the Ministry reviewed the general features of the "Decent Life" initiative, noting that the initiative works on four main pillars, including improving the level of infrastructure and urban services, improving living and investing in people, and improving the quality of human development services.


This came during a visit by a delegation from the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, along with the Central Bank of Egypt and a group of banks, in addition to the Foundation for a “Decent Life” and the National Council for Women to the city and villages of the Sahel Saleem Center in Assiut Governorate, to implement the “financial inclusion” strategy in the national project for the development of Egyptian rural villages: Life decent.


Dr. Jamil Helmy, Assistant Minister of Planning for Follow-up Affairs of the Sustainable Development Plan, and supervisor of the "Decent Life" initiative, said that the application of financial inclusion is one of the most important interventions of the national project for the development of Egyptian rural villages.

He added that financial inclusion has a clear impact on alleviating the burdens incurred by citizens to obtain financial services that are often available in cities, explaining that the investments made by the state in the field of technological infrastructure pave the way quickly for the implementation of financial inclusion, especially with the availability of Internet services through a mobile phone throughout Egypt.


Helmy noted that in line with the state's provision of innovative, less costly, and more efficient solutions in providing services through mobile units, mobile teller machines will be located in villages at the appropriate times for citizens within the interventions.

The planning delegation’s visit included six villages in the Sahel Saleem Center (Al-Shamiya, Sheikh Shehata, Al-Afadra, Tasa, Al-Khawalid, Al-Nazla Al-Modjadah).

Moreover, consultative sessions were held with the residents of each village, to determine the needs regarding the financial infrastructure, including ATMs and electronic payment machines, and to provide Micro and small loans.


The follow-up data for the first phase of the "Decent Life" initiative indicates that the number of development interventions is 46 in the villages of (Sheikh Shehata, Al-Afadra, Tasa, Al-Khawalid, Al-Nazla Al-Modeda), including the installation of 12 power transformers, and the establishment of Fawzi Abdel Rahim Ali Suleiman School (22 Separation), a sewage station and lines in the village of Tasa, the expansion of Al-Khawalid School (8 classrooms), and the maintenance of Al-Khawalid Preparatory Common School.


 The ministry's delegation included Mr. Ahmed El-Shimy and Mr. Mohamed Sherif El-Hely, coordinator of the "Decent Life" initiative at the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.