Country: Tunisia
Region: Middle East and North Africa
Type of client: Civil Society Organisation
Year: November 2014 — April 2015
Country Information
Tunisia is located in Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria and Libya. As of 2018, the population was 11,662,106. Tunisia’s diverse, market-oriented economy has long been cited as a success story in Africa and the Middle East, but it faces an array of challenges following the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, including slow economic growth and high unemployment. Tunisia’s government remains under pressure to boost economic growth quickly to mitigate chronic socio-economic challenges, especially high levels of youth unemployment, which has persisted since the revolution in 2011. Tunis is seeking increased foreign investment and working with labor unions to limit labor disruption. GDP of Tunisia was 40.26 billion USD in 2017 and literacy rate stands at 81.8% of the population.
Project Information
The client received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of project to enhance microfinance amongst women and youth. It intended to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services related to a demand-side analysis examining the mobile money and digital finance innovation landscape in Tunisia. This research came at a particularly important time for both public and private stakeholders in Tunisia. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies has facilitated a working group on Mobile Payments, gathering private and public stakeholders, to better identify the market potential, the barriers and the way forward. The postal network, along with some commercial banks, began offering mobile wallet and transfer services in Tunisia. Mobile network operators (MNOs) are limited to serve as communication channels in the deployment of MFS, due to current regulatory limits. There seems to be significant potential in scaling up current operations and in leveraging other networks to provide MFS to rural and underserved areas.
Project/Services We Provide
The organisation received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of a project to enhance microfinance amongst women and youth. This research came at a particularly important time for both public and private stakeholders in Tunisia. The Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies facilitated a working group on Mobile Payments, gathering private and public stakeholders, to better identify the market potential, the barriers and the way forward. The postal network, along with some commercial banks, began offering mobile wallet and transfer services in Tunisia. Mobile network operators (MNOs) were limited to serve as communication channels in the deployment of MFS, due to regulatory limits. There seemed to be significant potential in scaling up operations and in leveraging other networks to provide MFS to rural and underserved areas. Some of the services provided by Amarante for this project included:
- Country diagnostic analysis of mobile payment services, including analysis of telecommunications environment, and competitive positioning of MNOs and financial service providers engaged in MFS
- Examination of the legal and regulatory framework underlining mobile payments and digital finance innovation in Tunisia
- A survey examining access to, usage of, and demand for mobile payments in Tunisia. The objective of the survey is to better understand consumers’ perceptions and use of mobile payment services
- Analysis of different operational models for mobile payment expansion in Tunisia with attention to potential products, delivery channels, required regulatory and supervisory developments, and critical market and non-market issues that need to be addressed for future sectoral growth
- Recommendations on the way forward to test, choose and implement the operational and legal model most appropriate for Tunisia (including possible recommendations on the organization of pilots to test operational models)