Digitalization and reduction of costs of international remittances for migrants and their families in Morocco
IFAD is partnering with Moneytrans under the PRIME Africa initiative to accelerate the uptake of digital remittances among Moroccan migrants in the EU to enhance the benefit of these flows for families back home towards greater financial inclusion. Moneytrans aims at furthe developing and customising its digital product offering for financial inclusion of migrants,
Moroccan remittance senders in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Remittance recipients in Morocco, 30% living in rural areas.
Programme
FFR Strategic Framework
PRIME Africa
Project Goals
To enhance the financial resilience and economic empowerment of Moroccan remittance families through cost-effective, digitized remittance flows from Europe, and innovations towards financial inclusion.
Implementing Partners
Moneytrans Payment Service (Moneytrans) was estbalihsed as an international Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) in Belgium in 2003 and gradually positioned itself as a Europe-to-Africa IMTO champion, competing with global leaders.
Geographic Target
Morocco
Outcomes
In 2023, Moneytrans enhanced its digital offering and moved a step further towards the provision of basic banking services for the diaspora featuring a SMILE account in EU host countries allowing to receive salary payments and direct debit for renting for instance, a card attached to that account allowing to store money safely and make payments at the merchants and online, withdraw cash when needed, and online remittances made possible from that account at lower cost.
Their SMILE account product promotes the socio-economic integration of vulnerable migrants: the less financially included use it as their primary account and others, wealthier or financially included, use it as a secondary account to benefit from advantageous conditions for sending money.
The SMILE solution includes remittance transfers that are 20% cheaper than the average in the market for the corridors with Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as an accident insurance and eventual repatriation costs and compensation to remittance receivers in Morocco.
As of the end of 2023, 1,716 accounts were opened by Moroccans abroad, 300 of which used to send remittances.
