Written by: Reham Ali
BELBAQY, an Egyptian Fintech start-up company, aims to expand in Gulf markets, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in the coming period.
Osama El-Shafei, founder of “BELBAQY” platform, said in exclusive statements to Fintechgate that the application is based on the idea of “SNBL – Save Now Buy Later”, which allows you to benefit from the Cards Rounding Up and Leftovers Fractions of any spending transaction, whether it was in cash or online payment via Credit cards, which in many cases are wasted money.
He added that “BELBAQY” platform is based on providing a method to reuse the Fractions through an application based on “points” and “cash back” system, through which the client may use the points in purchases, paying for (electricity, water, phone credit…), or in cashback by converting points into cash that is sent to E-Wallets, whether a bank or mobile phone company E-Wallet (a point is equal to a Piaster).
Regarding how to use the application, El-Shafei said that the client can download the application through “Play Store” or “Apple Store”, fill in his information and creates an account on the application.
As an example El-Shafei said that in case of credit Cards payments, if the bill is 148 pounds, an amount of 150 pounds will be collected (Rounded up) from the credit card, as per on the customer’s request, and the extra two pounds (Fractions) will be added to the customer’s account on “BELBAQY” application. If the bill is 42.3 pounds, an amount of 70 Piasters will be added to make it 43 pounds, or 2.70 pounds to make it 45 pounds, and such extra amount shall be added to his account on the application. The customer will receive a text message or a notification confirming the points addition as per the transaction value.
He added that in case of cash transactions, the seller, as per the customer’s request, buys BELBAQY points through points of sale (POS), with the Leftovers Fractions value and add it the customer’s account in the “BELBAQY” application.
Osama El-Shafei referred to the customer’s ability, through the “BELBAQY” platform, to invest the “Fractions” indirectly through investment funds managed by one of the largest Asset Management Companies in the Egyptian market, which allows him to invest either in various Asset Classes with a Fixed Return, Equities, or Precious (gold).
El-Shafei stated that their aim is to spread the investment culture among the Egyptian citizens and to work on changing the informal economy to be formal economy through the application solutions and the “BELBAQY” points system.
He added: “We aim to spread the investment culture among the citizens by motivating the “BELBAQY” application users and encouraging them for Micro Investing of such “Fractions” instead of wasting it.”
He mentioned that the “BELBAQY” application was established in 2021, and its Soft launch was at the beginning of the current year, 2023, and the number of application customers reached about 5,000 customers so far.
El-Shafei said, “We have contracted with 8 of the largest Point of Sale (POS) Providers, which represent more than 70% Point of Sale volume in Egypt. The actual operation of application was completed with two companies, and the integration and operational steps are being completed with the rest of the companies.”
“The actual launch of the application will be on early 2024, noting that a full rebranding has been performed on the application model for customer convenience” he added.
“We aim to increase the number of the application users to reach 100 thousand customers next years, as well as the expansion in the application activation in the largest franchises and convenience stores” he continued.
He also noted that the application user will have the option to choose the investment asset class he wishes for his points in the application, which BELBAQY company considers a positive step for spreading the investment notion among the Egyptian citizens, particularly in relation to the Fractions that is usually wasted.
Finally, El-Shafei noted that BELBAQY application is an implementation for the financial inclusiveness policy that Egypt seeks implementation in the financial and economic aspects in the state.
