Egypt’s real-time/instant payments are in the “very early” growth stage, says ACI Worldwide and GlobalData in its 2024 Prime Time for Real-Time report, with 2023 transactions reported at 39 million.

By volume of transactions in 2023, Egypt has the 3rd largest in Africa after Nigeria in 1st place with 7.9 billion transactions and South Africa with 284 million instant transactions.

Real-time payments account for only 1.4% of Egypt’s overall payments by volume, but that is expected to change rapidly, writes ACI.  

“By 2028, real-time payments are predicted to account for more than one-third of payments in the country,” with expectations that transactions will reach 1.1 billion. This would bring the report’s forecast of Egypt’s instant payments’ compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 94.9% between 2023 and 2028.

Egypt’s real-time payments journey began in 2022 with the launch of the Instant Payment Network by the Central Bank of Egypt, followed by the introduction of the InstaPay application.

The Middle East ranked as the fastest-growing real-time payment market, with the region’s real-time payments volume surging by 33.6% year-on-year in 2023 to reach 855 million transactions. ACI’s report forecasts that this will see an uptick in CAGR by 28.8% by 2028 to hit 3 billion.  

The ME region has implemented several real-time payment schemes that benefit businesses and consumers and drive financial transformation.

Prior to 2023, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE were the only countries to have introduced an instant/real-time payments system. Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar joined the list in 2023.

The transaction value in the Middle East is expected to soar from $230 billion in 2023 to $903 billion by 2028.