Ahmed El-Sheikh – EXG Chairman: Improving the public’s financial awareness reflects positively on expanding the investor base and the sound decisions of theirs.
Ashraf Salman – Chairman of Egyptian Federation for Securities: The Federation will play a major role in training, spreading financial awareness, promoting various financial instruments.
Mohamed El-Sayad - Vice Chairman of Financial Regulatory Authority: FRA works to spread financial awareness as a milestone to achieve financial inclusion.
Nandini Sukumar - CEO of World Federation of Exchanges: we must prioritise the improvement of financial education and literacy globally.
Honoring new student EGX ambassadors shows EGX's commitment to prepare future young leaders.
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The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) celebrated the inaugural of World Investor Week (WIW) today, Monday, October 2, 2023, by ringing the opening bell. Mr. Ahmed El-Sheikh – EGX's Executive Chairman and Mr. Ashraf Salman – Chairman of Egyptian Federation for Securities, opened the trading session. In attendance were Dr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Assistant to FRA's Chairman, Mr. Mohamed Ayyad, Director of FRA's Media Center, in addition to leaders and representatives of EGX, Egyptian Federation for Securities, Egyptian Society for Technical Analysts (ESTA), and Egyptian Investment Management Association (EIMA).
Ahmed El-Sheikh, EGX Executive Chairman, reaffirmed EGX's enthusiasm for participating in World Investor Week activities. He stated that EGX is committed to advancing financial literacy, especially as it relates to capital markets. El-Sheikh added that strengthening public understanding of financial concepts has long-term positive impacts for the stock exchange. Deeper financial knowledge among individual investors "improves the demand side," he explained, while also increasing the propensity of company owners to list on the exchange, in turn "improving the supply side." Overall, El-Sheikh underscored that raising awareness supports the development of more robust, inclusive capital markets for the benefit of both issuers and investors.
The EGX Chairman outlined that the exchange will continue advancing its financial literacy efforts through strategic initiatives such as the EGX Ambassadors Program, an intensive university lecture series, one-day educational visits, and tours to the EGX historic building. Awareness programs targeting school-age children will also remain an important part of the strategy. By leveraging multifaceted outreach, from collegiate partnerships to youth engagement, EGX is well positioned to expand financial knowledge among both current and future generations of Egyptians. This approach supports the ultimate goal of developing a more robust investor community and increasingly deep capital markets that can power sustainable growth across the nation.
Ashraf Salman commended EGX's efforts to promote financial literacy. He emphasized the critical importance of advancing knowledge around financial technology, as it lays the cornerstone for developing markets and introducing innovative investment products. Financial technology also represents a key avenue for engaging younger generations and cultivating their participation. Salman added that as the industry's self-regulatory organization (SRO), the Federation is well-positioned to play a leading role. This includes providing training that expands financial awareness, educating on various instruments, and bringing more segments of society into the capital market. The Federation will likewise work to license financial professionals through coordinated oversight with regulatory counterparts at FRA and EGX. Its specialized committees will help drive these human capital development initiatives forward.
Mohamed El-Sayad expressed Financial Regulatory Authority's (FRA) commitment to actively participate in the activities of World Investor Week (WIW). This participation reflects FRA's strong belief in the significance of promoting financial awareness across all sectors of the non-banking financial industry, including the capital market. Enhancing financial awareness plays a crucial role in achieving financial inclusion, which is a key objective for FRA.
Nandini Sukumar, said that: “As an industry, Exchanges and CCPs recognise that to thrive and expand, we must prioritise the improvement of financial education and literacy globally. Our ongoing dedication to these efforts stems from our belief in inclusive growth and the role that market-based financing plays in fostering sustainable economic expansion. Education is a significant factor in developing both emerging and mature markets, and by ringing the bell today, participants are exemplifying their commitment to this cause and are recognising the opportunity it presents.”
As part of its celebration of World Investor Week, the EGX honored recent graduates of its "Ambassadors" program who helped promote financial literacy throughout 2023. The recognized graduates included students from the British University in Egypt and the London School of Economics at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. The celebration also featured trainees who had just completed the new EGX Ambassadors Program, comprising students selected from the British University in Egypt and the Egyptian-Japanese University. These graduates contributed to raising investor awareness during their time in the program.
EGX Ambassadors Initiative is the first TOT for financial awareness organized by EGX to prepare qualified trainers from students in universities operating in Egypt specialized in investment and finance. The initiative aims at enabling qualified program graduates to participate in the training activities organized by EGX in schools and universities to explain the basics and principles of investment in securities.
“Ring the Bell for Financial literacy” campaign, organized by World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) for the fifth year in a row, during Global Investor Week, from 2 to 8 October 2023, in cooperation with International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), aims to raise awareness about the importance of investor education and protection.
