In Egypt, lending apps boost cash- strapped women’s business

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of up to 40 percent.

Many online gameyas have no interest rates, and registration requirements are minimal: just uploading an ID, signing a contract in person, and providing monthly income statements.

The apps also let members pay a fee to be among the first in line for a payout, thus letting them settle old debts quickly and avoid taking on new loans with onerous interest rates.

Mohamed turned to an online app called MoneyFellows to help her repay the 15,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 954) that she owed the microfinance company for her shop.

“Two months ago, I finally paid my loan. I’m joining another money circle to grow my business and fund my daughter’s marriage,” the mother of three said.

Pandemic lifeline

Many of Egypt’s women entrepreneurs turned to the gameya model during the pandemic, which hit small enterprises hard.

Three- quarters reported a drop in business in 2020, and 9 percent had to shut down completely, according to a survey by Egypt’s Ministry of Planning.

“People are showing growing interest in online savings systems because they are simple, easy to use and come with meager interest rates,” said Ahmed Wadi, founder of MoneyFellows.

The number of women entrepreneurs using the app has risen from about 20,000 before the pandemic to some 150,000, representing about 6 percent of its 2.5 million users.

Women make up one in three users of another app, ElGameya, typically seeking loans of about 15,000 pounds.

“There was an already existing need for our business,” its founder Ahmed Mahmoud Abdeen said.

“Women were already joining offline gameya apps or borrowing from their friends and families to pay their loans or grow their business. We only made life easier for them.”

Part of the appeal is the flexibility.

If ElGameya’s borrowers want to get their payout within the first four months of the lending circle, they pay a monthly interest rate of up to 9 percent. But if they accept a longer wait, the interest fees are waived.

Amal Abdel Aty, who owns a home utensils shop in the Nile Delta city of El Mahalla El Kubra, said she had been forced to borrow from her friends and sell some of her possessions to meet repayments on two loans she took from microfinance companies.

Her first loan was worth 10,000 pounds at an interest rate of 24 percent over 18 months.

When she could not pay