Mohamed El Moncer, Al Baraka Bank Tunisia CEO, and VJ Odedra, VYZYO CEO.

Mobile financial services technology company VYZYO, announced that the company’s subsidiary and Fintech solutions provider Tunisian Digital Finance for People (TDFP) has signed a partnership agreement with Tunisia-based bank Al Baraka Bank to jointly launch and operate a mobile wallet service in the North African country.

According to a statement released to the media, TDFP will deploy the VYZYOPay platform to enable Al Baraka Bank to offer a mobile wallet service to its customers.

The companies said the new mobile wallet service will initially enable digital payments for government services, mobile transfers, and merchant payments.

Al Baraka Bank’s mobile wallet service will also facilitate the disbursement of government social welfare, health care reimbursements, pension payments, micro-insurance and micro-savings.

The companies have emphasised that the mobile wallet service is focused on financial inclusivity and is available to all segments of the population – “including those with limited or no access to banking services, health care and communications infrastructure.”

In the statement the partners explain that Al Bakara Bank and TDFP will deploy a combination of innovative and legacy technologies that will facilitate and process digital payments “not only to those with access to web-based services on the internet or mobile apps running on a smartphone, but also those with older devices or limited connectivity through SMS, USSD and interactive voice technologies.”

Mohamed El Moncer, CEO of Al Baraka Bank Tunisia, said, “We are proud of this new challenge with TDFP and VYZYO, which supports the national effort of financial inclusion, especially through decashing, which will contribute to fortifying the Tunisian economy and will standardise digital payments. We strongly believe in this new partnership with TDFP and VYZYO, which will be promising for next projects.”

VJ Odedra, Founder and Group CEO of VYZYO and CEO of TDFP, added, “This is a wonderful deal for Al Baraka, TDFP, VYZYO and, most importantly, the people of Tunisia. Al Baraka’s excellent management team driven by the visionary leadership of Mr. Mohamed El Moncer combined with VYZYO’s extensive global experience, full suite of products and services, and passion for deploying solutions that deliver equal opportunities for all will make social and financial inclusion in Tunisia a reality.”

“In parallel, we are confident that our partnership with Al Baraka will create a model blueprint for other financial institutions and service providers to follow,” added Odedra.

Remittance growth in North Africa

In early June this year, World Bank market research showed that remittances to North Africa grew by 7.6% in 2021 to US$61-billion, driven by robust gains in Morocco (40%) and Egypt (6.4%).