CAIRO – The National Bank of Egypt, in cooperation with Mastercard, launched a touch card for visually impaired clients.
The launching ceremony was attended by Social Solidarity Minister Maya Morsi, President of the bank Hisham Okasha, Executive Vice President and Division President for West Arabia at Mastercard Adam Jones and other officials.
In press statements, Morsi expressed happiness over launching a touch card to meet the needs of visually impaired people as part of financial inclusion efforts.
She said that the Ministry of Social Solidarity provides support to 1.2 million people with disabilities through the ‘Karama’ program, with a total annual budget of 9.8 billion Egyptian pounds.
She added that the ministry was able to provide sign language interpreters in 13 government universities at a cost of 5.4 million pounds.
She lauded tireless efforts of all parties that were involved in launching such a unique card, the first of its kind in North Africa.
Okasha said the innovative design of the Mastercard Touch Card is tailored to assist visually impaired individuals in distinguishing between their payment cards as it features distinctive notches on the sides, allowing users to easily differentiate between debit and prepaid cards.
He said the card was designed in a way that enables visually impaired people to conduct their financial transactions easily.
He added that the bank was also the first to launch payment cards in 1994, a move that made a boom in the financial transactions field.
Okasha said the bank has 100 visually impaired people hired in its 230 branches across the nation and trained 400 staffers on sign language.
Also, the bank has 1,288 ATMs designed for visually impaired people and 34 for those with mobility impairments, according to him.
