Bringing Financial Literacy to Everyone: EGX’s Approach to Financial Education

Financial literacy becomes meaningful when people can connect it with their lives, ambitions and everyday decisions. For the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), this means taking financial education into universities, schools, workplaces, community organisations and digital platforms, while opening the exchange itself to those seeking to understand its role.

EGX’s approach combines accessible introductions with opportunities for deeper learning and practical experience. It reaches students discovering financial concepts, graduates preparing for careers, individuals exploring investment and entrepreneurs considering financing options. Six complementary pillars connect these activities, supporting a broader and more informed relationship between society and the capital market.

1. Making Financial Education Part of Student Life

Universities are central to EGX’s financial literacy efforts. Through dedicated booths, the exchange is represented in 11 universities, bringing financial education directly into students’ everyday surroundings. These spaces create opportunities to ask questions, explore investment concepts and become familiar with the exchange.

Alongside this presence, EGX delivered around 20 courses across different universities, providing structured opportunities to develop financial knowledge beyond an initial conversation. School courses extend this educational approach to younger learners, introducing concepts that can support their understanding of future financial decisions.

Partnerships provide a foundation for continued engagement. EGX’s cooperation agenda included a memorandum of understanding with NOVA University and agreements with four new universities. It also activated cooperation protocols with eight universities to provide training for 40 students, translating institutional relationships into learning opportunities.

Together, booths, courses and university partnerships create several entry points into financial education, accommodating different levels of interest and familiarity.

2. Connecting Learning, Heritage and Career Opportunities

EGX’s historic building provides a distinctive setting for financial education. Through around 120 tours, the exchange has brought visitors closer to its history and the institution behind the market. These visits make the exchange more tangible, creating opportunities to connect its heritage with questions about its present-day role.

The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) hosted the CFA Regional Research Competition for the first time in Egypt, bringing together university teams from nine countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Russia, Greece and Cyprus. The competition provided students with an opportunity to apply their financial analysis and investment research skills, present recommendations to industry experts, and bridge academic knowledge with practical experience. It also highlighted the importance of evidence-based analysis, professional ethics and continuous learning in developing the next generation of investment professionals.

Complementing these efforts, the EGX Ambassadors Programme engages young people in communicating financial concepts and promoting financial awareness among their peers. EGX also launched an initiative to prepare qualified capital-market professionals from among top university graduates. Its participation in employment conferences at Capital University and Misr International University, alongside engagement with the advisory council at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport’s Alamein branch, further strengthened links between education and the financial sector.

3. Reaching Communities through Familiar Settings

Financial education should be accessible to people who may never attend a specialised investment conference. EGX’s community outreach therefore brings learning into familiar cultural, social and recreational environments.

At the Cairo International Book Fair, EGX combined a dedicated booth with educational lectures, introducing financial topics within a setting built around knowledge and discovery. Brokerage firms joined the exchange to offer visitors a more holistic investment journey, connecting explanations of market concepts with information about the practical steps involved in accessing investment services. This brought complementary perspectives together and gave visitors opportunities to ask both introductory and practical questions.

The Money Made Simple event at EGX’s historic building and in Sharm El Sheikh provided another setting for approachable financial discussion. Youth and sports sessions, together with sessions at Somoha and Sporting clubs, extended engagement through established community networks.

In cooperation with ECAS, EGX also participated in “Your Daily Investment… Coffee or a Share?” seminars for members of the State Lawsuits Authority and at the National Council for Women. Alongside ECAS courses, these sessions connected financial learning with different professional and community audiences, using an everyday spending choice as a starting point for conversation.

4. Sustaining Engagement through Digital Content and Media

Digital channels allow financial education to continue beyond a classroom, booth or event. EGX’s youth-oriented social media campaign presents financial concepts in a style intended to connect with younger audiences, while the EGX Ramadan social media competition introduces an interactive opportunity to engage with educational content.

Podcast engagement through Bta3 Ektsad and Kalam Al Mal provides space for discussion, questions and examples. These conversational formats complement shorter content and offer audiences another way to explore financial and economic subjects.

The dissemination of the stock-price ticker across channels affiliated with United Media Services also brings market information into a broader television environment. Alongside educational outreach, this visibility creates opportunities to encourage curiosity about the exchange and how it works.

Preparatory discussions concerning a dedicated EGX educational platform address a further opportunity: connecting initial awareness with more structured learning. Taken together, these channels support different ways of engaging with financial information and help maintain contact with audiences beyond individual events.

5. Helping Entrepreneurs Understand Capital-Market Opportunities

Financial literacy also serves entrepreneurs and business owners who need to understand financing options and the requirements associated with them.

EGX’s engagement with Techne, the Egyptian British Business Association (BEBA), Plug and Play, and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) connects its outreach with business and innovation communities. Participation in BEBA’s conference formed part of this effort to bring capital-market knowledge into wider business discussions.

A more focused initiative involved coordination with the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA). EGX completed the procedures and arrangements for an introductory workshop on listing requirements and procedures.

This addresses a practical educational need. Understanding how listing works can help businesses assess its relevance to their circumstances and identify areas where further preparation or advice may be needed. It also extends financial education beyond individual investment decisions to the financing choices that shape business development.

6. Building Partnerships for Wider Access

Cooperation underpins EGX’s ability to reach diverse audiences. Participation in the International Arbitration Conference extended engagement into a professional forum, while meetings with EGBANK and the Deputy Governor of South Sinai formed part of its institutional outreach.

These discussions complement relationships with educational institutions, community organisations, media platforms and market participants. Different partners bring access to different audiences, helping the exchange identify opportunities to make financial education more relevant and accessible.

The involvement of brokerage firms at the Cairo International Book Fair illustrates how cooperation can connect awareness with practical understanding. University partnerships similarly provide a basis for moving from introductory engagement to organised learning.

Across these six pillars, EGX’s approach recognises that financial literacy develops through repeated opportunities to learn. A university booth can prompt a first question; a course can deepen understanding; a tour can make the market more familiar; and a podcast can sustain interest. Connecting these experiences helps establish financial education as an ongoing process, supporting more informed participation in the financial world.