The Central Bank of Egypt has officially launched its regulatory framework for software point-of-sale (soft POS) devices, allowing merchants to turn any NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet into a payment terminal, the CBE said in a statement (pdf). The move follows a two-year pilot phase that had restricted contactless payment transactions to EGP 600; that limit has now been lifted, allowing soft POSes to function par with dedicated hardware terminals.

How it works: Vendors download a dedicated application on an NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet. That allows them to accept contactless payments from cards and digital wallets. To complete a transaction, a customer taps their card against the merchant’s smartphone; for larger amounts, they enter their PIN directly on the device’s screen using internationally accredited “PIN on glass” security standards.

There are already applications in place, such as Tap to Phone offered by our friends at Visa, who also provide certification services for third-party payment service providers. Local fintech giant Fawry also announced in late 2024 a fully in-house developed soft POS solution called Tap N Pay.

The state of the market: Uptake of soft POSes wasn’t phenomenal during the pilot phase — merchants could only run EGP 600 transactions through the app. That barrier is now gone.

The death of the machine? Traditional POS terminals are expensive bottlenecks, with their cost usually covered by payment service providers (PSP) with a contribution from the merchants. For PSPs, the full rollout of the CBE’s soft POS framework should be massive scaling play, as onboarding a merchant no longer requires a physical logistics chain — just an app download.

Why it matters

“This progressive regulatory framework paves the way for a truly mobile-first economy,” Visa country manager for Egypt Malak El Baba told EnterpriseAM. The official rollout of soft POS applications aims to accelerate Egypt’s transition to a less-cash society, making it easier for small and micro-enterprises to join the formal digital economy. The move will give SMEs, delivery fleets, and retailers zero-cost entry point into the formal economy, bringing a greater share of everyday transactions into the formal banking system.

How it used to work for SMEs: Under the simplified tax framework for small businesses, the Tax Authority had allowed SMEs to apply to receive a POS machine at no charge, on the condition that they join the e-receipt system and commit to using it and issuing real-time e-receipts.

By the numbers

The number of electronic POS terminals rose sharply last year, reaching around 1.6 mn devices, deputy assistant governor of the CBE Ehab Nasr told EnterpriseAM. The rollout, alongside the expansion of electronic payments, is part of a plan to promote digital payment adoption among companies and merchants across Egypt. Cashless transactions in Egypt grew 45% y-o-y by the end of 2025, Nasr said, while the cost of accepting cash remains around 1.3-3.0% per transaction in Middle East and Africa markets, according to a study conducted by BCG last year.

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