Tunisia prepares itself for mobile payments

An agreement protocol for the development of mobile payment services was signed last September between the Tunisian Mail and Tunisiana, the country's leading private mobile operator.

The service, called M-Paiement, is now offered in Tunisia and enables users to make payments and transfer money from a prepaid account to another via a mobile phone.

It also allows for the consultation of accounts as well as the renewal, blocking and unblocking of a debit card.

Technology centre Pôle El Gazala in organising an information morning about M-Paiement on January 18th in partnership with European norm.

According to TunisiaIT, mobile payment system creators are concentrating their efforts on security with two areas of development.

The first is based on Near Field Communication technology, which enables the secure exchange of data between a card reader and any mobile phone or between mobile phones themselves.

Alternatively, the second area centres around SMS. It allows for remote payment and does not require any investments from retailers or users and works with any mobile phone.

SMS payment technology such as M-Paiement is based on the USSD protocol, as it is considered secure, flexible and smooth.

source: mfw4a.org