With one in three now banked, Egypt has shown substantial improvement in financial inclusion since 2014, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex Database (pdf), which charts financial inclusion figures. Adults with a bank account in Egypt grew to 33% in 2017 from less than 20% in 2014, according to the report. While the improvement is high, and among the highest from emerging markets we’ve seen charted, inequality remains an obstacle. Men are 12% more likely to have bank accounts than women, with the gap between high and low income adults growing 21%. The World Bank notes that these trends reflect the global outcomes of the database. In the MENA region, 52% of men have accounts, while only 35% of women have them, the largest gender gap of any region.

Relatively high mobile phone ownership in MENA offers an avenue for expanding financial inclusion: Among the unbanked, 86% of men and 75% of women have a mobile phone. Up to 20 mn unbanked adults in the region send or receive domestic remittances using cash or an over-the-counter service, including 7 mn from Egypt, according to the report.