Al Baraka Bank and VYZYO partner to launch mobile wallet service in Tunisia
By Edlyn Cardoza
VYZYO, a mobile financial services technology company, announced today that the company’s subsidiary Tunisian Digital Finance for People (TDFP) has signed a partnership agreement with Al Baraka Bank, a fast-growing Bank in Tunisia, to jointly launch and operate a financially and socially inclusive mobile wallet service in Tunisia.
As a first step in the partnership between the two companies, TDFP will deploy VYZYOPay as a platform for Al Baraka Bank to offer a mobile wallet service to its customers across Tunisia. VYZYOPay is a technology platform that enables banks and other financial institutions to provide digital payments and mobile financial services and embrace the new wave of digital transformation towards digital and branchless banking.
This new mobile wallet service will initially enable digital payments for government services, mobile transfers, merchant payments and more. 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.
Al Baraka Bank’s mobile wallet service will support financial and social inclusion. It will be available to all segments of the population in Tunisia, including those with limited or no access to banking services, health care and communications infrastructure. To achieve this, Al Baraka Bank and TDFP will deploy a smart combination of innovative and legacy technologies for digital payments to be processed 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 technologies.
Al Baraka Bank, TDFP and VYZYO will combine their extensive international expertise and experience to drive the right strategy to develop, launch and promote the new mobile wallet service, especially to the large underbanked and unbanked segments of the population in Tunisia.
“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 standardize digital payments,” said Mohamed El Moncer, CEO of Al Baraka Bank Tunisia. “We strongly believe in this new partnership with TDFP and VYZYO, which will be promising for next projects.”
“This is a wonderful deal for Al Baraka, TDFP, VYZYO and, most importantly, the people of Tunisia,” declared VJ Odedra, Founder and Group CEO of VYZYO and CEO of TDFP. “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.
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