Arab Finance: Fawry and diversified regional business Al-Futtaim have signed a strategic partnership to integrate payments, rewards, customer engagement, and flexible financing solutions at Cairo Festival City Mall, as per an emailed press release.
The initiative will be introduced in phases, beginning with the connection of Fawry’s payment services to Blue, Al-Futtaim’s lifestyle and rewards platform. The companies also plan to develop a flexible payment option specifically for the mall under Blue, starting with a “Pay in 4” service that is expected to carry zero customer fees at selected participating merchants.
The collaboration will allow shoppers to earn and redeem Blue Points across participating outlets, access personalized offers, and join campaigns covering retail, dining, and entertainment. The platform will also provide participating tenants with customer insights designed to support more relevant engagement and encourage repeat visits.
Cairo Festival City Mall receives 18.5 million visitors each year and houses more than 265 retail, dining, and entertainment brands. Al-Futtaim and Fawry intend to use that scale to roll out the services across participating tenants, giving customers additional payment choices while helping merchants streamline their operations and improve conversion.
Fawry will support the program through its nationwide payments infrastructure. The company serves 55.4 million active customers through 364,600 point-of-sale (POS) acceptance points across Egypt. It has processed 1.057 billion transactions and generated EGP 5.22 billion in total revenue.
Beyond its rewards function, Blue will serve as the link between shoppers and participating businesses. Its integration with Fawry is designed to bring payment services and customer engagement tools into a single system that can operate across the mall’s tenant network.
“Egypt’s consumer landscape is being reshaped by digital adoption, and the destinations that will lead in this next phase are the ones that build genuinely integrated experiences rather than adding technology at the edges. Cairo Festival City Mall has always been conceived as more than a shopping destination, and this partnership is a deliberate step in that evolution. By combining one of Egypt’s most trusted payment networks with Blue, our own lifestyle ecosystem, we are creating a model in which payments, rewards, and personalization function as a single experience rather than separate touchpoints. This is a long-term investment in how Cairo Festival City Mall serves its customers and tenants, and it reflects the scale of ambition we hold for every part of our business in Egypt,” Tarek Tantawy, CEO of Al-Futtaim Egypt, said.
Ashraf Sabry, CEO of Fawry, said: “As Egypt’s commerce landscape continues to evolve, the future lies in creating connected ecosystems where technology works seamlessly across every stage of the customer journey. Our partnership with Al-Futtaim reflects this direction, bringing Fawry’s payments capabilities together with Blue’s lifestyle ecosystem to create a more integrated experience for customers and merchants at Cairo Festival City Mall. Beyond enabling more convenient payments, we see this collaboration as an opportunity to help merchants better engage with their customers, unlock new opportunities for growth, and participate in the continued digital transformation of Egypt’s retail sector.”
Dany Karam, Chief Marketing and Partnerships Officer at Al-Futtaim Blue, commented: “This partnership represents an important step in expanding Blue’s role across Al-Futtaim’s ecosystem. By integrating Fawry’s payment capabilities with Blue’s lifestyle and rewards platform, we can create a more seamless experience for customers while giving participating tenants new ways to engage with them. Cairo Festival City Mall provides the ideal environment to bring these capabilities together at scale and demonstrate the value of a more connected approach to commerce.”
