Making Payments Easier in Tunisia with a New Payment Card

Throughout the Microcred network one of our goals is to get closer to our clients. In Senegal, Madagascar and very soon Côte d’Ivoire we do this through Baobab, in Ivory Coast and Madagascar through mobile branches and now in Tunisia through Mobicred.

Mobicred is a new payment card connected to the mobile payment platform Mobiposte offered by Microcred Tunisia (MCTN) in partnership with La Poste Tunisienne. The partnership was finalized in early March 2017 and clients are expected to begin receiving the payment cards by June 2017.

Through the Mobicred partnership, MCTN is able to offer clients a variety of new services:

1. The use of a payment card connected to a mobile account accessible through a USSD menu on any type of mobile phone (does not require a smartphone).
2. Cash-in and cash-out services at over 1,050 postal branches.
3. The disbursement and repayment of loans, money withdrawals and payments in stores using the card and mobile account.

In order to receive the card, loan officers will be able to subscribe clients via a mobile phone. The client receives a secret code which allows the client to activate the card in the branch and then the client can choose to withdraw their loan payment or keep it on the card.

To repay their loans, clients will be able to deposit money onto their mobile account and then pay the money through their mobile phone to Microcred. The fees are minimal for the card: the client pays 0.8% commission on transactions with a minimum fee of 0.60 DT (0.25 Euro) and a maximum of 1.2 DT (0.49 Euro).

Microcred Tunisia began operations in 2014 and since then has expanded to 10 branches covering the main regions of Tunisia. Throughout this time, MCTN has sought out partnerships in order to offer their clients a variety of points of service, especially those living the farthest from any MCTN branch. In some cases, clients pay for a taxi and travel for 2 hours in order to repay their loans.

There are numerous advantages for MCTN clients that we hope to observe in the months after the service is launched:

• Many Tunisians are already familiar with the postal network as they use it to pay their bills among other services, so we hope that MCTN clients will immediately benefit from the time and cost savings this partnership offers.
• MCTN also has partnerships with major banks but clients are not always comfortable going to banks and the post is a good alternative for this segment. Our goal is to see many more clients using the different points of service as they have more choices.
• La Poste Tunisienne is actively committed to improving its customer service and in rural and isolated areas is often the fastest way to conduct financial transactions. We expect the partnership to have a positive impact on our customer service.

For MCTN, use of the card will result in decongested Microcred branches, which will enable staff to focus more on quality customer service, acquiring new clients and developing products that meet clients’ needs.

The Mobicred partnership will be operational within the next 3 months so check back soon for the first results and feedback from clients about Mobicred.

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