CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Saeed, Mennatullah |
|---|---|
| Title | Global Politics of Financial Inclusion: Examining the EBRD's Interest and Role in Implementing the WIB and YIB Programmes in Egypt |
| Summary | Despite operating in Egypt since 2012, it was not until 2015 that the EBRD has started investing significantly in Egypt’s financial sector. Why this special interest in the Egyptian financial sector and why in 2015 and not earlier despite the dire situation that the Arab Spring created were quite interesting to investigate. Accordingly, this thesis explores why and how the EBRD has developed a significant interest in promoting financial inclusion in Egypt since 2015. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis argues that the EBRD has used the financial inclusion discourse as a legitimating instrument to justify this interest. Through a thorough analysis of the examined discursive materials, the thesis argues that this special interest reflects the political agenda of the bank’s donor states (European Union and European countries), who have funded its technical packages under the Women in Business and Youth in Business programmes in Egypt. According to the EBRD’s charter, the bank is obliged to submit to the interests of the donors who fund technical packages. As such, given the 2015 migration crisis and Egypt’s significant geographical location, the donors have been interested in making Egypt economically and financially more resilient to attract the migrants coming from Africa and the Middle East. Furthermore, the thesis also showcases the EBRD’s prowess in utilizing the complex network of elite actors involved in financial inclusion promotion in Egypt to advance its donors’ political interests. In this sense, this study argues that the EBRD’s assistance packages have been designed in a manner that made the state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE) align its interests with those of the EBRD’s donors, creating a positive correlation between the NBE’s profitability and the political agenda of the EBRD’s donors. |
| Supervisor | Dóra Piroska |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/saeed_menna.pdf |
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