How will MenaPay Transform the Unbanked Population in Turkey?
The researches made in Turkey regarding financial literacy indicates that the young people are still not sufficient enough and 31% of ages 15 and above are still unbanked. According to the Sia Insight research, among the 2 thousand young people, 50% firmly believed that they are successful in money management and spending however; 83% of them do not know how to do a spending plan, 87% of them do not have the habit of saving money, 80% of them do not even follow the economy and 84% have no knowledge of money and financial issues. Moreover, three out of four young people do not know the meaning of the word inflation.
Why is the financial literacy important for a stronger economy in Turkey?
When you compare the developed countries with the developing countries, the most obvious difference is that the financial services sector in the developed countries is much more advanced and individuals benefit from these services immensely. Financial access and financial literacy are a clear indicator of economic and social development. When you look at the data of the unbanked population in the UK for instance, the rate drops to 4% compared to Turkey with 31%. This huge gap can only be closed by educating the young population, creating awareness of the importance of money management and spending, credit card usage, saving money etc. The education system does not provide financial literacy unless people choose finance related degree in university. This should be one of the first steps for the Ministry of Culture and Education to take in order to educate the young and improve their knowledge of money management.
Here is the summary of the research again:
Among the 2 thousand young people aged between 15–24 years,
- 83% do not have the habit of creating any spending plans,
- 87% do not have the habit of regularly accumulating money,
- 84% do know about money and financial issues,
- 75% do not know the meaning of the word inflation.
How will MenaPay help the young people to keep their expenditures under control?
MenaPay is getting ready to revolutionize the habits of spending money and managing funds of the entire population in Turkey; mostly aiming for the young population. The application replaces traditional payment methods with a block-chain based, fully backed cryptocurrency to provide a secure and transparent payment gateway. The application will be available to be downloaded from the Apps Store and Google Play. People will create an account by completing the profile verification process and start using their digital wallets by topping up MenaCash from top-up points labeled on the app nearby and can start shopping online and offline by scanning the QR codes.
Unlike in traditional banking system, everyone can become a MenaPay user and create digital wallets, make transactions or payments in a secure way. The application is also Islamic compliant; meaning that it does not use interest and as each transaction needs to be witnessed by at least 2 people, with it’s decentralized and transparent nature, blockchain guarantees that this is the case. These core principles are why ‘’practicing’’ Muslims do not trust centralized authorities such as banks; which are not fully transparent over their transactions and do not fully comply with these guiding principles. MenaPay uses utility tokens to share the revenue of the MenaPay platform with MenaPay token holders. The system is therefore fully compliant with Islamic finance rules because token holders earn returns only when the platform is used and is generating revenue. Check out MenaPay’s YouTube channel to get more insight!
How will it benefit the Merchants in Turkey?
On the other hand, the application greatly simplifies payments for merchants while making them more secure. The current business flow of traditional payment systems require an excessive number of intermediaries and is not very secure. To receive their customer’s funds, merchants need to precisely follow the steps of the issuing bank, set-up the payment gateway and associate it to the credit card before being able to process the payment via the acquiring bank. MenaPay entirely alters this system to make everyone’s lives much easier by decreasing transaction time and costs. The company has also developed a better system for cryptocurrency users as well. Users will be able to see the name of the merchant that the wallet ID belongs to so they’ll only send their cryptocurrency after confirming that the wallet ID and merchant’s name are correct. Furthermore, the MenaPay platform enables peer-to-merchant transactions by using a simple QR code and barcode which allows all online and offline merchants to accept digital payments from MenaPay without the costs of fraud, chargeback, and loss of consumers while struggling to complete an online payment. Thus, unlike the traditional tools such as credit cards and/or cash, transactions in cryptocurrency are 100% safe. Early merchants can fill out the application form to start using MenaPay!
In conclusion, MenaPay’s payment system will help the young population in Turkey to control their finance, make payments and transactions easier, faster and more secure.
