Tunisian Digital Finance for People (TDFP), VYZYO ’s subsidiary, has partnered with Al Baraka Bank to launch and operate a financially and socially inclusive mobile wallet service in Tunisia. VYZYOPay is a state-of-the-art technology platform that enables banks and other financial institutions to offer digital payments and mobile financial services as well as embrace the new wave of digital transformation towards digital and branchless banking.

Therefore, as a first step in the partnership, TDFP will deploy VYZYOPay as a platform for Al Baraka Bank to offer a mobile wallet service to its customers across Tunisia. The mobile wallet service deployed by Al Baraka Bank and TDFP will initially enable digital payments for government services, mobile transfers, merchant payments, and more. Al Baraka Bank’s mobile wallet will also facilitate the disbursement of government social welfare, health care reimbursements, pension payments, micro-insurance, and micro-savings.

Driving financial inclusion through technology Al Baraka Banks aims to serve all segments of the population in Tunisia, including those with limited or no access to banking services, health care, and communication infrastructure. To support its financial and social inclusion goal, Al Baraka Bank wants to make digital payments accessible not only to those with access to web-based services on the Internet or mobile apps running on a smartphone, but also to those with older devices or limited connectivity through SMS, USSD, and interactive voice technology. Mobile wallets offer a solution for people who want to conduct banking transactions and don’t have a bank account.

Mobile wallets are one of the solutions for improving financial inclusion since they reduce cash dependency and offer a safer way to conduct financial transactions online with minimal risk of fraud and theft. By the end of 2020, over 2. 8 billion mobile wallets were in use across the world.

Financial development and inclusion in Tunisia According to World Bank, a total of up to 1. 7 billion people globally have no access to banking services. African countries experienced positive developments in access to financial services in recent decades.

In many African countries with the deepening of the financial sector, more financial services, especially credit, is now provided to individuals and enterprises. Similarly, new technologies such as mobile money help broaden access to financial services, including savings and payment products. However, indicators of the use of financial products and services by adults and enterprises in the region show that many challenges remain toward building a more financially inclusive financial sector in Africa.

In the Middle East and north Africa, 44% of adults over the age of 15 have a bank account, compared with 68. 5% globally. In Tunisia alone, this figure is 37%.

As mobile money has achieved the broadest success in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 16% of adults report having used a mobile phone in the past 12 months to pay bills or send or receive money, just 2% of Tunisians have a mobile money account, compared with 4. 4% worldwide. Therefore, the wider adoption of mobile wallets could prove transformative for the region.

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