Ripple has announced its partnership with Egypt’s largest bank, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE). RippleNet, a global payments network, will connect NBE with LuLu International Exchange, a financial service provider based in the UAE, and process cross-border payments.
Egypt received remittances upto $24 billion in 2020 from its citizens employed in the Gulf states, including the UAE. The north African nation was one of the top five recipients of remittance globally after India, China, Mexico, and the Philippines.
Changing The Remittance Experience
Remittances are a significant part of a country’s gross domestic product. They are vital for the countries that receive them as they boost their economies by paying for various necessities such as education, food, purchases of homes, or even capital to start a business.
The current cross-border payment infrastructure bears a lot of friction and is very slow and costly. The partnership aims to solve this problem. NBE and LuLu Exchange aims to make the cross-border remittance experience quicker, cheaper, and more reliable.
Reshaping The Cross-Border Payment Infrastructure
Hesham Elsafty, Group Head for Financial Institutions and International Financial Services at NBE, states that the bank is continuously aiming to develop and enhance the infrastructure of cross-border remittances as it plays a vital role in the Egyptian economy.
He further adds,
“NBE’s partnership with Ripple will help to improve overall efficiency by enabling NBE to establish new alliances across wider markets with reduced cost and quicker integration time. We are very excited to announce our new partnership with Ripple and Lulu which we believe will contribute to a further acceleration of the Egypt-UAE remittances corridor.”
Egypt And UAE To Reap Benefits
The partnership with Ripple and NBE is focused on making the payments ecosystem of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by applying the suitable adoption of technology with the right kind of collaboration, believes Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director of LuLu Financial Group.
The partnership has great potential, and by unlocking it all, the Egyptian community gains a reliable, seamless, and accessible cross-border payments solution while the UAE can gain more business opportunities.
Ripple Leverages The Best Of Blockchain Technology
Ripple’s payment network, RippleNet, uses blockchain technology to accelerate business performance and scaling across a global network. Using a single API makes payments faster, cheaper, and reliable for all parties involved.
Navin Gupta, Ripple’s Managing Director of South Asia and MENA, notes,
“The ability to send and receive money quickly, reliably and inexpensively today plays a larger role than ever before. Ripple is proud to partner with NBE and LuLu Exchange to bolster the MENA region’s financial infrastructure and provide a frictionless cross-border payments experience for the Egyptian community.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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