Mounir Nakhla
Honours
The story
Mounir Nakhla studied in London, at the European Business School and the London School of Economics, then joined Environmental Quality International in Cairo in 2000, becoming managing partner in 2008. Offered a business financing tuk-tuk drivers, he ignored bankers who warned the drivers would never repay, went to a Nile Delta village to talk to them, and found they earned back the cost of their vehicles within a year. He founded Mashroey to lend to them, and in 2015 Tasaheel, which offered group loans to women micro-entrepreneurs and became Egypt's largest microfinance company. A 2017 meeting with Gojek's founder showed him how fast an app could reach customers, so he launched Halan, a tuk-tuk and motorcycle ride-hailing app. The rides lost money, and he shut ride-hailing down to focus on lending. MNT-Halan has since disbursed more than $15.5 billion in loans to over 8 million customers and was valued at $1.4 billion in 2026.
