The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat has witnessed the launch of the e-signature and e-seal services in cooperation between Orange Egypt and Egypt Trust to activate their signed agreement.
The agreement is aimed to facilitate the deployment of companies and individuals’ contracting on e-signature services through Orange’s points of sale and stores.
The agreement is part of the state’s efforts to expand the provision of e-services to companies, institutions, and individuals to support the digital transformation strategy in Egypt, accelerate the pace of its implementation and deploy its applications in all sectors and fields.
The e-signature and e-seal are the legal alternatives to a handwritten signature. They are used in signing and ratifying all types of transactions, documents, requests, e-correspondences, and e-mail messages. e-Seal is the modern equivalent of a company’s stamp and serves as an e-signature that enables companies to secure data, transactions, and documents.
The ICT Minister highlighted that the launch of the services represents a steady step in the process of building Digital Egypt. Through the process, large packages of ICT-related services are provided to citizens. So far, about 150 services have been launched on the Digital Egypt platform in cooperation with the sectors providing these services.
The ICT Minister underlined that the e-signature services are provided within the framework of the second generation of services provided on the platform, which are technology-based. Consequently, the citizens’ identity can be verified, and services can be provided to them without having to visit service providers.
Talaat explained that a strategy was started in 2019 to activate the e-signature system through the legislative amendment to the law issued in 2004, in line with modern technologies. Then, the e-signature applications were launched, starting with government applications, including those related to the law enforcement system. Furthermore, the e-signature creation device will be provided to employees moving to the New Administrative Capital.
Talaat pointed out that the second phase of the e-signature services, including the e-invoice, entails transactions made among the government, companies, and entities, in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance. Currently, the e-invoice system is being prepared, he added.
Talaat also noted that the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) has built an information infrastructure capable of accommodating the increasing demand for e-signature verification requests.
The ICT Minister added that the third phase enhances cooperation with the private sector to provide e-signature services to citizens nationwide. He commended the close cooperation between e-signature service providers and ICT companies to achieve this stage.
Talaat stressed the significance of cooperation between the government and private sectors and civil society organizations to raise societal awareness about the uses of e-signature, especially since the coming period will witness the launch of more e-signature-dependent services.
ITIDA CEO Amr Mahfouz declared that ITIDA is pleased to expand and deploy the e-signature system nationwide to facilitate access to this significant service.
ITIDA has injected capital estimated at EGP 55 million within the last three years to develop and update the operating systems of the Egyptian Root Certificate Authority (Root CA) and to develop human capabilities, Mahfouz pointed out.
Mahfouz underlined that ITIDA has allocated about EGP 75 million to establish an exchange site for Root CA in the New Administrative Capital to meet the increasing demand for e-signature services. This is in addition to ensuring and increasing the systems and requests’ speedy responses for real-time verification of e-signature validation certificates.
The CEO of Orange Egypt Yasser Shaker expressed his pleasure at launching the e-signature services in partnership with Egypt Trust. Orange and Egypt Trust had previously signed an agreement to deploy the uses of e-signature and e-seal extensively to include all e-transactions. e-Signature is one of the most significant accelerators of digital transformation in Egypt.
Shaker added that Orange is always working to strengthen its position in the Egyptian market as a major provider of all digital transformation technologies and applications and smart solutions by concluding various partnerships and agreements with professional entities specialized in their digital fields.
The CEO of Egypt Trust Mohamed Kiwan emphasized the company’s efforts to develop its effective role in deploying the e-signature and e-seal services by launching its services at Orange’s stores.
Kiwan added that Egypt Trust is the first company to provide e-signature and e-seal in Egypt, which sheds light on the company’s ability and accumulated experience in providing its services over the past 15 years in serving companies and individuals through service-providing branches which are accredited by ITIDA.
Kiwan continued that the launch of the e-signature and e-seal services at Orange’s stores is a new success step in Egypt Trust’s success stories. Through this step, Egypt Trust will expand further to reach the largest scale of e-signature users in Egypt to facilitate the services provided to its customers.
Orange and Egypt Trust announced, during the launch of the service, that the first phase of the operation will start in Orange stores in Abbas El Akkad in Nasr City and Al Mesaha Square in Dokki. Currently, both stores are fully prepared to receive citizens, financiers, and companies to complete the procedures of obtaining e-signature and e-seal certificates.
Consequently, the second phase will include operating the service in the remaining stores in Alexandria, Mansoura, Ismailia, and Assiut Governorates. Accordingly, the interim operation process will continue to include all governorates nationwide.
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