Egypt Post launched its new visa card service during the Cairo ICT (Information Communication Technology) exhibition on 9 December. A statement from Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) stated that Executive Chairman of Egypt Post Ashraf Gamal El-Din has invited Minister of MCIT Atef Helmy to witness the launch of the service. According to Gamal El-Din, the prices of those visa cards would not exceed EGP 30 and could be charged at any post office "to facilitate the payment or transfer funds between all clients". The electronic payment service enables citizens to perform financial transactions, as it connects more than a hundred post offices. It was also connected to the Visa and MasterCard service "123 network". Gamal El-Din stressed that the organisation aims to expand its prepaid card services and is committed to developing its financial services "in order to attract more customers", the statement read. He added that access to the service does not require customers to have a bank account and that only a copy of the national identification card is needed. The 17th annual Cairo ICT exhibition was inaugurated on Monday under the slogan "Building bridges". The aim of the exhibition is to provide IT, telecom and communication companies an opportunity to highlight their market, interact with customers and underscore the most important achievements over the past year. It also provides a platform for participants to learn about the latest initiatives and projects in the IT sector. Gamal El-Din was appointed to his position last April. In order to develop customer services, Egypt Post launched in March a new service allowing companies and individuals to pay taxes electronically. This service allows taxpayers to make payments regardless of the location of local tax offices. After payments are collected, the payment centre would inform the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA).
