The rate of banking among Niger’s population remains among the lowest in Africa. The country has a population of almost 80% living in rural areas with limited access to conventional banking services. However, the use of digital financial products and services, which is being incorporated into the country’s habits, is supported by the national inclusive finance strategy, which includes provisions that put digital transformation at the heart of the actions.

“BIYAN ZAMANI” to facilitate remote payments

Making financial services accessible to rural populations and boosting financial inclusion in Niger is the objective of this partnership between I-Futur and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

The result of this partnership is an electronic payment service accessible to all, called “BIYAN ZAMANI”, in the local language for better adoption by the population. “BIYAN ZAMANI” simplifies financial transactions and current operations such as merchant payments, deposit and withdrawal of funds commonly known as Mobile Money.

To make the service accessible, the Fintech i-Futur plans to distribute several payment terminals (TPE) to merchants. Health centres, drugstores, clinics and shopping centres are also eligible to benefit from the “BIYAN ZAMANI” service. Available through all mobile phone operators in Niger, it is accessible to people online via the web and offline via USSD #789#.

Let us recall that the fintech i-FUTUR works for the development and the provision of digital financial services to rural populations, state institutions and companies. Among its innovative solutions, we have the payment aggregator iPaymoney (to facilitate the collection of electronic payments through mobile money, ZAMANI, and bank cards) and TerraFinance (a solution dedicated to the management of women’s groups and agricultural cooperatives in partnership with SFDs for the management of savings and loans)