The Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) has just published its report on payments in Tunisia for 2023 as a whole.
Compared with December 31, 2022, the number of electronic payment acceptance points at the end of last December comprised 3,207 ATMs (+5.5%), 35,300 EFTPOS terminals (+7.4%) and 7 million bankcards (+7.2%).
The total number of bankcard transactions reached 149 million (+11%). Bankcards were used for 36% of payments and 64% of withdrawals. The total value of these transactions came to 25.2 billion dinars, 23% of which was for payments and 77% for withdrawals.
In addition, the volume of telecompensated means of payment – cheques, direct debits and bills of exchange – has slowed down, while the number of transfers has accelerated.
As regards cheques, more than 25.2 million cheques (-0.1%) were issued in 2023 for a total amount of 123.9 billion dinars (+4.6%) with a rejection rate of around 1.65% in number, i.e. 417 thousand cheques, and 2.84% in value, i.e. an amount of 3.5 billion dinars.
More than 33.5 million transfers were made last year (+3.5%) for a value of 50.8 billion dinars (+8.9%), with a rejection rate of 0.11% in number and the same in value.
The number of direct debit transactions fell by 12.1% compared with 2022, to 5.4 million transactions worth 22 billion dinars (+12.4%). Nevertheless, this means of telecompensated payment has the highest rejection rate in terms of number, at 37.5%.
