ABSTRACT
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is rather underbanked and heavily reliant on foreign migrant workers when compared to other regions in the world. With the rapid expansion in digitalization, online payment solutions, and mobile phone penetration, startups, particularly fintech, are playing a large role in supporting the financial inclusion of migrants and, potentially, refugees into the formal financial system. This chapter will look at the main trends in financial inclusion in the MENA region and how fintechs play a crucial role in the remittance market. It will also look at how governments, regulators, financial institutions, and investors provide policy and financial support to scale these initiatives. Fintechs largely depend on particular technologies that provide low-cost, scalable solutions, such as in the MENA region cover remittance services, as cross-border financial transactions are among the largest requirements for migrants who need to send money back to their families and countries of origin. As this is an emerging area, several case studies of fintechs in the MENA region, working on technologies such as e-remittances, digital identification solutions, blackchain and distributed ledgers, insuretech, and mobile money and payment solutions to provide financial inclusion to migrant workers will be covered.
