Morocco to launch m-wallet, a payment service used through mobile phones

Morocco is launching mobile wallet payments by the end of November and expects the service to generate 50 billion dirhams a year by 2023, reports Reuters quoting a Bank al-Maghrib official.

Implementing this new project will lessen the amount of cash used for payments, said Asmae Bennani, head of the central bank’s financial payment systems told reporters in a conference held Tuesday in Rabat.

«Morocco has a smart phone penetration rate of 130 percent - meaning it has more mobile subscriptions than people - but only 56 percent of adult Moroccans had a bank account at the end of 2017», said the British news agency quoting the central bank’s data.

The service, called m-wallet, can be used to transfer money, and pay bills through mobile phones, concluded the same source.

«Mobile payment is a new project that will be launched nationally and an instrument that will facilitate certain daily operations for Moroccan citizens», said Bank al-Maghrib Director General Abderrahim Bouazza, during a press conference in Rabat, reports MAP news agency.