The Governor of Banky Foiben’i Madagasikara (BFM), Aivo Andrianarivelo announced the establishment of the national Switch secure payment system towards the end of the year. “Users of financial services will no longer be required to have a bank account in a credit institution to be able to access loan offers,” he explained on Tuesday at Novotel Alarobia. It is a cost-effective operational switching device that can carry biometric identities and enables low-cost payment interoperability between different credit institutions without payment terminals. Its implementation was planned for 2020, conferred on the BFM, as part of the national financial inclusion strategy 2018-2022. In the meantime, some banks are announcing that they are working on solutions that will soon be implemented.
According to a survey conducted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), more than 90% of local economic operators questioned agree on the need for a secure payment system, which opens the way to interoperability of different payment methods online and by mobile phone as well as adequate protection of online consumers for the development of e-commerce. Since until now, due to a lack of security, an error in a mobile transaction can cost millions. Indeed, apart from financial inclusion, the national Switch allows the development of electronic commerce at a time when nearly 21 million transactions per month are made around mobile money, the volume of which reaches 430 million euros. In 2020, the weight of digital will reach 2% of GDP, with turnover amounting to 365 million euros. In other places, such as the case of Cambodia for example, securitization has enabled the development of blockchains and the creation of central bank digital currencies, driven by mobile money and card-based solutions, a pioneering experience of a central bank digital currency. In addition, the BFM launched in 2020 the e-Ariary project, the digital form of our national currency, in addition to banknotes, as a means of payment that is secure, easy to use, accessible and legal tender on the National territory.