Banks reconsider their social spending items during the international crisis

Global crises are escalating, Inflation has reached unprecedented levels, recording its highest numbers in decades, unprecedented rise in food prices and other commodities. Due to Corona pandemic that struck the whole world in early March 2020, lack of supply and employment, which contributed to the rise in the prices of commodities such as gas, food, cars and furniture.

 Ukraine's war, which has been going on for more than a year, had an additional impact on the economy. Oil and gas prices, in addition to the decline in wheat production and the disruption of its export operations.

Which led to an increase in global poverty rates, as a recent report by the World Bank revealed that the number of people suffering from extreme poverty increased by about 685 million by the end of last year.

He also predicted that about 7% of the world's population, or about 574 million, will suffer from extreme poverty until 2030, which is a large percentage compared to the global goal that aims to reduce poverty to reach only 3% of the world's population by 2030.

This opens new horizons for the need to adjust the banks' spending trends in social responsibility to reach the most needy citizens to provide their basic needs of food and water, and give them a decent life.

This is in light of the Egyptian banking sector spending huge amounts of money within the framework of its social responsibility, as the total contributions of the sector in this field during the first 9 months of last year amounted to more than EGP1.086 bn.

Banks can provide their support to the most needy groups through many ways, including launching seasonal fairs at least to provide basic commodities at nominal prices, or through food vouchers used to purchase their needs, which we witnessed recently with the Agricultural Bank's convoys, in cooperation with  Misr El Kheir, to distribute Ramadan cartons to the most vulnerable groups.

The banking sector as a whole can also come together and launch public initiatives to improve services that reach homes in the poorest and most needy villages, such as providing electricity services and providing roofs for homes.

This will play a major role, as Egypt being greatly affected by the global crises and the critical situation that citizens are witnessing now.