Chairman’s Note

“The group continues to reap the rewards of eFinance’s attractive one-stop shop digital platform, Reflecting our successful strategy to further consolidate our lines of business”

Ibrahim Sarhan

Chairman & CEO

In 2022, our unique value proposition and continued investment in key areas across our digital platforms have seen the Group deliver double digit growth across its top and bottom lines, achieve strong profitability margins across the board, and generate exceptional value for our investors and shareholders. The Group’s revenues booked an increase of 34.7% year-on-year (y-o-y) to EGP 2.6 billion for 2022 on the back of solid growth across various fronts, from our legacy operations as a well-established build and operate player to the Group’s more recent ventures in the tech and digital payments spaces that have further strengthened our offering. In terms of profitability, the Group booked a net income increase of 54.7% y-o-y in 2022, which was driven by eFinance’s focus on growing the contribution of higher-margin revenue streams, such as variable-fee revenues from eFinance’s comprehensive transaction processing capabilities. I would like to especially shed light on the strong performance of the Group’s cloud hosting vertical, which delivered a stellar performance and booked a near three-fold increase in revenue for the year to EGP 779.1 million. This performance was driven by our continued investment in cloud infrastructure, which has allowed us to expand our client base.

eFinance’s investment plan has been calibrated to give the Group a key seat at the table for the developments that will transform Egypt's financial sector, as innovations incubated in international markets begin to have an impact closer to home.

Investment plan objective

To consolidate barriers to entry across our areas of operation, providing the Group with the flexibility to make sound, long-term investments in developing our platform.

A key priority for our organization

To create profitable synergies between our existing lines of business, leveraging the technology infrastructure that is shared across our subsidiaries to engage in profitable cross-selling. Several of our platforms, including those engaged in e-commerce, aggregation, and smart solutions can be combined with offerings elsewhere in the eFinance family to drive lucrative synergies under the Group umbrella.

Moving forward

We aim to expand our client base beyond government agencies and banks to grow the Group's exposure to retailers and corporates, as certain eFinance subsidiaries have already been doing. We further aim to increase our share of wallets from digital banks, and one avenue we will pursue in this regard is to invest additional resources in our unique cloud infrastructure and in services that drive business to our cloud.

Our cloud infrastructure also represents a solid platform which can be used to establish eFinance's presence in Egypt's financial sector and provide an innovative suite of financial services.

Moreover, as pioneers in the market leading the shift to cloud services, I am pleased to report that during the Cairo ICT conference in November 2022, we successfully launched Egypt’s largest cloud computing platform. The Group’s landmark launch reflects our efforts in supporting and enhancing public and private sector businesses and organizations in driving and enabling the growth and scalability of their operations. This milestone also marks the first-ever license issued by the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to a private company to operate a cloud computing platform in Egypt and stands testament to eFinance’s strong capabilities and expertise in this space. The Group has already built a solid tech infrastructure that has served a wide array of clients across a multitude of industries, and I am confident that the launch of our new cloud computing platform will play a pivotal role in accelerating Egypt’s digital transformation agenda.

eFinance's focus in financial services will be to establish greater proximity to the end-client than exists with our current businesses

Whether such clients are corporates or individual accounts. As such, the Group remains on the lookout for opportunities that will strengthen and enhance our position as the Egyptian leader in fintech, with possible avenues ranging from participation in venture capital funds to full-fledged mergers and acquisitions. eFinance is seeking to play a greater role in Egypt's thriving fintech startup scene, using our resources and infrastructure to incubate and promote dynamic new companies that interact synergistically with the Group's existing offerings. Over the long term, eFinance aims to gain healthy exposure to each link of the full fintech value chain.

Meanwhile, eFinance aims to fully leverage Egypt's impressive economic growth and is expanding aggressively into dynamic sectors that have received growing attention, including agriculture, tourism, transportation, and more. We have already made headway in each of these spheres through our various subsidiaries, and we are also excited to fulfill the mandate we've been given to help roll out universal health insurance across all governorates.

Exciting Times for eFinance Investment Group

We have before us a range of opportunities and challenges which will call for creativity, prudence, and diligence. Heading into our first full fiscal year as a publicly listed company, we have begun to institute a new operational culture that befits our status as an entity with broad national and international exposure and which is entrusted with a mandate to create value for a broad array of stakeholders. With the Group continuing to expand and establish its presence across a range of new economic sectors, eFinance is aiming to expand beyond Egypt and into our near abroad, with a particular focus on Africa. As eFinance continues to grow and evolve in line with changing markets and the dynamic technological landscape, we are confident that the Group's dedicated and talented teams will have what it takes to ensure that we can successfully fulfill our mandates for years to come.

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Chairman eFinance Investment Group