Mai Abdel Hamid, CEO of the Social Housing Fund and Mortgage Finance Support, participated in the “Technical Deep Dive” workshop on public-private partnership in social housing, organized by the World Bank in collaboration with the Tokyo Development Learning Center (TDLC) in Tokyo, Japan.
The event was attended by prominent figures such as Egypt’s Ambassador to Japan, Ragy El-Etriby, and Takami Hiroshi, Head of the World Bank Office in Tokyo, alongside Hala Ghazy, Deputy CEO of the Social Housing Fund, and World Bank representatives Laila Abdelkader and Aliaa El-Didi, who work as financial sector specialists in the Bank’s Egypt office. Additionally, participants included representatives from the public and private sectors from around 10 countries, totaling 55 attendees, as well as Japanese experts and representatives from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
During the workshop, Mai Abdel Hamid delivered a comprehensive presentation of Egypt’s pioneering experience in providing adequate housing for low-income families across three different sessions. She highlighted the initial challenges faced by the initiative, particularly the reluctance of banking institutions to participate, as the program initially started with only four banks before expanding to include 30 financial entities today. She also outlined the mechanisms that helped overcome these challenges.
Mai Abdel Hamid explained that the presidential initiative “Housing for All Egyptians” relies on clear and specific criteria for selecting beneficiaries. These criteria are announced in advance in the conditions booklet for each announcement, ensuring transparency and enhancing citizens’ trust by giving them full awareness of their rights.
In the context of digital transformation, she emphasized that the Fund has fully digitized its services to reduce direct contact between service providers and citizens, thereby enhancing transparency and governance. This step has also helped shorten application review times and accelerate workflow, noting that all procedures are now fully implemented electronically. Citizens can now purchase conditions booklets, submit their documents, track the status of applications, and even file complaints and inquiries without needing to visit the Fund’s headquarters.
In addition to her participation in the technical workshop, Mai Abdel Hamid held a meeting with Takami Hiroshi and Ambassador Ragy El-Etriby to explore ways to enhance the presentation of Egypt’s development experiences and exchange expertise within the framework of cooperation with international development partners. Representatives from the Japanese business community and government also participated to broaden the scope of cooperation and generalize successful experiences.
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