Miguel Hadchity reports for Arab News on how Egypt’s Valu and Saudi Arabia’s Arib are addressing financial exclusion from two very different starting points (arabnews.com).
- In Egypt, where a large share of adults have no formal bank account, Valu, a buy now, pay later and consumer finance platform, has built underwriting around the customer relationship rather than individual transactions, approving revolving credit limits upfront based on behavioural and income signals rather than prior banking history. Chief investment and investor relations officer Yara El Abd said this approach reflects that unbanked customers “are not inherently higher risk; they are simply unknown to a system that never tried to know them.” Of Valu’s more than 955,000 users, 308,000 were previously unbanked, 36% are women and 31% live outside Greater Cairo, with a non-performing loan ratio of 1.24%. The company has since expanded into healthcare and education financing, EV loans, e-commerce and investment products, and entered Jordan in 2026.
- In Saudi Arabia, by contrast, most consumers are already banked and digitally fluent — the challenge, said Arib cofounder and CEO Waleed Talat, is helping them navigate a crowded field of financing options rather than gaining access in the first place. Arib, a licensed digital financing broker, lets customers compare offers from multiple banks and finance companies through a single journey without extending credit itself, using open banking to verify IBAN ownership and salary data with customer consent. Saudi Arabia’s fintech sector has grown to 281 licensed firms as of mid-2025, drawing SR8.9 billion ($2.4 billion) in cumulative investment, while electronic payments now account for 85% of retail transactions.
- Both executives credited regulators, the Central Bank of Egypt and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), with providing an enabling legal framework, while flagging thin credit bureau coverage and heavy digital KYC as remaining barriers in Egypt. Looking ahead, both see closer regional integration: further Egyptian fintech expansion into new markets, Gulf platforms partnering with Egyptian firms for underwriting expertise, and deeper embedded finance in Saudi Arabia. As El Abd put it, fintech in both markets is “essentially a market structure correction” aimed at reaching customers traditional banking was never built to serve.
