Monetas Founder and CEO Johann Gevers
Tunis – Monetas, the Swiss software startup announced the pilot launch of its software technology in Tunisia in partnership with the Tunisian Post Office, La Poste Tunisienne, and Tunisian technology startup DigitUs. By powering Tunisia’s national financial infrastructure with Monetas technology, La Poste Tunisienne will offer its clients nationwide access to instant, secure, and affordable merchant payments, remittances, and more.
Today more than 3 million Tunisians are excluded from the financial system, but more than 600,000 are already using the official digital eDinar. With the La Poste Tunisienne app powered by Monetas, eDinar will be used to make instant mobile money transfers, pay for goods and services online and in person, send remittances, pay bills, manage official government identification documents, and more. Total transaction fees will be of negligible cost, even from amounts less than a fraction of a dinar, and in most cases fees are paid by merchants. The maximum fee paid on a transaction will be less than 1 dinar. La Poste Tunisienne will strictly control the issuance and circulation of the eDinar in order to prevent it from being used for illegal transactions.
An open mobile money platform
Speaking about this step towards a nationwide rollout, Monetas Founder and CEO Johann Gevers says, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Tunisian Government, National Post, and DigitUs to increase financial inclusion with an open mobile money platform that is able to operate across mobile networks. This is an important first step towards a freer and more prosperous world.”
La Poste Tunisienne CEO M. Moez Chakchouk said, «La Poste is a very important and trusted institution and is at the heart of financial inclusion efforts in Tunisia. At La Poste we are on a transformation journey to modernize our services with innovative technologies and power the digital economy. Digital, Mobile, and Internet, are all key components in this transformation. Monetas and DigitUs help us to bring these ingredients to the table.» (Monetas/mc/hfu)
About La Poste Tunisienne
The National Post Office is a non-administrative public company operating in the sector of postal and financial services. Commonly known by its trade name «the Tunisian Post,» the company has initiated several functional and trade reforms since its creation in 1999, reforms that enable it to position itself within various markets and consolidate its pioneering role in many areas thanks to a sales network with more than 1000 points of contact and its multidisciplinary human resources.
Aware of the possibilities offered by new technology, initiatives and programs have been undertaken to complete the digital migration of the Post. Thus, new electronic products have been launched namely the digital currency e-dinar: the first Internet payment tool in Tunisia facilitating electronic mandates and messaging through the web. The Tunisian Post is contributing to the innovative, digital culture in Tunisia through the development of several other solutions concerning e-government, e-finance, e-commerce and e-banking. With its experience and concerned to ensure greater proximity to its customers, the Tunisian Post is now developing a range of new products based on 3rd generation mobile technology, which will enable multi-channel business. For more information please visit: https://www.poste.tn/
About DigitUs
Digitus helps institutions in different sectors to implement applications and services based on innovative technologies, in a way that fits their current contexts, needs, and constraints; and at the same time in a way that sets them on a path for the future. DigitUs’s mission is to be the link between today’s institutions and the emerging architectures of digital currencies and smart contracts technologies. For more information please visit: http://digitus.tech/
About Monetas
Monetas is a software technology company based in Switzerland, founded in 2012 by Johann Gevers and Chris Odom. Monetas is developing technologies that empower people to live and do business with greater freedom than ever before, enabling a world of unprecedented prosperity. The Monetas platform is an advanced transaction technology that uses a secure digital notary to enable financial and legal transactions, public or private, worldwide. Using the Monetas platform, institutions, businesses, and individuals can conduct transactions with all types of financial instruments, including all national and digital currencies, using only a smartphone. This brings financial services to the world’s 2.5 billion unbanked adults.
The digital notary has the flexibility and power to process any kind of financial or legal transaction in real time and at negligible cost, and provides interoperability across mobile networks and national borders. Monetas enables partners to expand financial inclusion to anybody with a smartphone, eliminating the need to develop costly brick-and-mortar banking networks. This dramatically lowers transaction costs, making it possible for everyone to participate. Monetas was recently announced winner of the Swisscom StartUp Challenge 2015. Monetas has a fast growing international team of 27 engineers and business professionals, and is currently valued at over CHF 90 million. For more information please visit: monetas.net
