Overview

J-PAL MENA at AUC and the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) are co-hosting an event to disseminate knowledge on how microcredit can be designed to better serve Egyptian borrowers. While microcredit has expanded to well over 100 million borrowers worldwide, rigorous evidence shows that access to a loan alone is rarely enough to transform incomes or business outcomes. This event brings together researchers, microfinance practitioners, and development partners to share Egypt-specific and global evidence, test it against field realities, and identify the most promising design innovations for financial inclusion.

Expected Participants

The event will convene senior representatives from Egypt's microfinance and financial inclusion ecosystem, including microfinance institutions and lenders, development partners and donors, regulators, and researchers, as well as leadership from the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development and J-PAL MENA.

Why It Matters

Egypt's financial inclusion rate reached 67.3% by June 2023, with 44.6 million adults included, up from 17.1 million in 2016. Yet access has expanded faster than impact: account ownership in formal financial institutions remains below the MENA average, and MSMEs, 98% of Egypt's enterprises, 43% of GDP, and over 75% of employment, continue to face a persistent financing gap, with 53% operating informally. Closing this gap, particularly for women-led microenterprises in Upper Egypt, is central to Egypt's Vision 2030. The question is no longer whether to lend, but how to design financial products that work. SFSD, with its commitment to evidence-based economic empowerment, and J-PAL MENA, with its global network of researchers running randomized evaluations, are uniquely positioned to translate nine years of rigorous evidence into the design of Egypt's next generation of microfinance products.