News

MOBILE PAYMENTS MARKET,5 BILLIONS JDs IN 2020

Muntasir Homsi is the vice chairman of Dinarak in Jordan: Dinarak’s mission is to transform lives through financial inclusion, and provide mobile payment services that are trustworthy, cost-effective and convenient.

What is Mobile Payment Money?

Mobile payments services around the globe are growing rapidly, making quick and easy financial transactions and transfers available to millions of people in emerging markets – people who have been previously excluded from formal financial services (sometimes referred to as the ‘unbanked’ population). Jordan’s total adult population stands at approx. 5 million, with a high penetration of mobile phone users at around 90%, of whom 75% are unbanked – this suggests a potential market of around 3 million users/customers.

To create a formal structure for mobile payments, the Central Bank of Jordan is launching its JoMoPay system – which will act as a national switch, through which all mobile payments are completely regulated by the Central Bank.

What is Dinarak’s Current Status?

Our company is the only independent licensed payment service provider in Jordan that is 100% Jordanian and built with Jordanian expertise. Dinarak is one of the few providers fully licensed by the Central Bank of Jordan, connected to the JoMoPay system, and offers mobile payments services to merchants and the general public.

The company is focused on the lower end of the market: unbanked, low-income workers and families, who typically incur high commissions for their financial transactions (e.g. when sending money through traditional cash methods such as Western Union).

What are Dinarak’s Services?

Broadly, the platform will allow customers (assisted initially by agents) to set up E-wallet accounts, uniquely identified by their mobile phone number, and to deposit cash into those E-wallets to create E-Money balances – whereby they will be able to receive and transfer money, make deposits and withdrawals, and pay for goods and services with complete locational freedom.

E-wallets will be managed by the customer primarily through interfaces on the customers’ mobile phones, using a range of technology such as USSD, IVR and SMS and Smartphone apps – providing access to services for users with almost any type or sophistication of mobile phone.

Users will be able to perform all the following transactions, via the mobile phone interface or via the company’s agents:

Payment from one bank customer to another bank customer;

Payment from a bank customer to an unbanked customer;

Payment from an unbanked customer to a banked customer;

Payment from one unbanked customer to another unbanked customer;

Deposits (Cash In) to E-wallet, by an unbanked customer;

Withdrawal (Cash Out) from E-wallet of an unbanked customer, and Cash Withdrawals from the Settlement Bank’s ATM (for unbanked customers).

Why do you expect Dinarak to be a success story in Jordan?

As mentioned earlier, we are targeting the unbanked population and youth of Jordan, committed to covering all Governorates and remote areas where financial institutions have little or no presence.