The corner shop that became Egypt's bank branch

In Egypt, the bank branch was already on the corner - it just was not called one.

Fawry turned the country's kiosks, pharmacies, and corner shops into a payments network reaching more than 53 million customers, through some 395,700 points of acceptance within walking distance of most villages. The shopkeeper is the teller, the phone is the account.

The decision that mattered: do not build branches, switch on the retail network that already existed.

The Global South's financial infrastructure scales through the shops that were already there.

Source: Fawry, 2024-2025.