Electronic payment has been in force in several African countries for several years, so why is it taking so long to be implemented in Tunisia, which is still very late in this area?
We cannot explain this delay in a country that often prides itself on its advances in the field of telecommunications compared to other countries on the continent, advances that are difficult to see concretely.
In this context, the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), Marouane Abbassi, tells us that electronic payment will become a tangible reality in Tunisia… within a year. We must therefore wait again, hoping that this new deadline will be respected. Although, we have good reason to doubt it because the Tunisian administration has never shone with its speed or efficiency.
Speaking this Thursday, November 17, 2022, at the opening of a symposium on innovation and electronic payment, organized in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank (WB), Mr. Abassi welcomed, at the passage, the involvement of the two public establishments, the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (Steg) and the National Water Exploitation and Distribution Company (Sonate), in this service and its availability to citizens since some time, emphasizing the importance of the electronic payment service for all banking and financial companies, private and public, as part of the overall process of digitization of the national economy.
The Governor of the BCT spoke about the process of setting up the digital infrastructure for the provision of an electronic payment service via smartphones, with the aim of gradually abandoning the use of cash in financial transactions.
