Algeria is opening the door to telco-led mobile money. Can it work?

On September 23, 2026, the Monetary and Banking Council, chaired by the Governor of the Bank of Algeria, granted Djezzy Payment Services, a subsidiary of Optimum Telecom Algeria, the first-ever permission to become a Payment Service Provider (PSP). This breakthrough, following the creation of the category, could alter the conversation in a country of 47.4 million people with a still nascent mobile money market. However, the change has yet to materialize in the market.

The decision is just the paperwork stage. Djezzy has 12 months from the notification to apply for authorization from the Bank of Algeria. Only upon this second validation can the company process any dinars for clients. Algeria is still largely a cash society, with 9,654 billion Algerian Dinars (DZD) in circulation at the end of November 2025, equivalent to $72.1 billion.

The World Bank's Global Findex 2025 data shows that only about 35% of adult Algerians have a bank account, leaving nearly 20.7 million Algerians aged 15 and above outside the formal financial system. Digital payments are growing, but they started from a low base. The Algerian Interbank Monetary Interest Group reported 939 billion DZD (7 billion dollars) in electronic payments in 2025, up 46% year-over-year.

The same year, Algerians withdrew 4,397 billion DZD (32.9 billion dollars) from cash dispensers, meaning that for every digital dinar, nearly five emerged from a cash dispenser. There are 78,774 payment terminals as of December 2025, serving more than a million registered merchants. Existing infrastructures belong to banks and Algeria Post, the public postal service.

The Edahabia card and BaridiMob app drive much of the digital retail activity. Card processing goes through the Interbank Monetary Interest Group and the Société d'Automatisation des Transactions Interbancaires et de Monétique (SATIM), Algeria's electronic payment network. Telecom operators sell credit through a national network of kiosk distributors and kiosks where customers exchange cash for a "flexy" recharge.

This network resembles the cash deposit agent network in Algeria. No one has been authorized to transform this network into a payment network. Algeria has not yet developed a mobile money market that has taken root on much of the continent, particularly in Kenya, leaving telecom operators the opportunity to bridge the payment gap.

The Djezzy license is a first step to closing this gap. The decision's real meaning lies in the legal foundation established by Law 23-09 of June 2023, which created Payment Service Providers (PSPs) as a new category of financial intermediaries, and Regulation 25-02 of April 14, 2025, which outlines their rules. Key points include a minimum capital of 160 million DZD (1.2 million dollars), payable in cash after authorization.

Authorized services include cash deposits and withdrawals, payment account management, transfers, withdrawals, card issuance, and fund transmission. Payment accounts have limits, cannot be overdrawn, and do not generate interest. PSPs are not banks. The headquarters, payment platform, and backup systems must be located in Algeria.

Client funds must be covered by a banking guarantee or insurance, and the list of agents must be published. The sober reading is that the rules are cautious but practical. The caps and prohibition of interests limit what a PSP can become, but they do not prevent it from precisely building what Algeria lacks: a phone wallet backed by physical points for deposit and withdrawal.