The Minister of Post and Telecommunications took part, along with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, on October 22nd , 2023 at the kickoff of the launching of the “pilot city of electronic payment” at the level of the National Higher School of Mathematics, in the new city of Sidi Abdellah, Algiers. In his speech, the Minister of Post and Telecommunications declared that this pilot operation is part of multi-sectoral coordination and illustrates the government’s efforts aimed at the generalization of electronic payment as well as encouraging citizens to adopt this modern means in economic transactions.
Regarding the contribution of his ministerial sector to this initiative and to the development of electronic payment in general, Mr. Bibi Triki indicated that it consists of the supply and provision of the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the use of ICT, in particular, connection to the internet network, in addition to tools and solutions for the generalization of the use of electronic payment means such as payment cards. Indeed, this infrastructure is constantly progressing, in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic, given the growing demand from citizens,.
Referring to certain positive indicators recorded thanks to this infrastructure in the context of the generalization of electronic payment, the Minister cited the encouraging experience carried out in collaboration between the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and that of Higher Education and Scientific Research concerning the payment of registration fees of more than 1.7 million students via the internet through the use of the “PROGRESS” platform by the EDAHABIA electronic payment card and the electronic payment platform of “Algerie Post” company.
The number of operations processed as part of this cooperation on the occasion of the 2023-2024 academic year, reached 2 million 360 thousand operations. In the same vein, while highlighting the progress made according to electronic payment data via ” EDAHABIA electronic payment card”, the Minister indicated that it is expected that the number of transactions recorded in 2020 i.e: five (5 ) million operations, will increase to 60 million operations towards the end of 2023.
As part of the efforts aimed at succeeding and diversifying initiatives for the generalization of electronic payment, the Minister reiterated the commitment and mobilization of the sector, whether at the level of the Ministry’s services or operators of post and telecommunications, with the support of actors in the ecosystem working for its promotion, including financial institutions such as Algerie Poste and start-ups as well as new players in general, through the continuation of efforts to consolidate and modernize the telecommunications infrastructure and the increase in the number of electronic payment cards, which currently stands at 15 million cards, and which is expected to be consolidated by 3 million additional cards towards the end of 2024.
Furthermore, citizens and economic operators have the choice between remote payment (via the internet), payment in commercial spaces via Electronic Payment Terminals (EPT) or via Smartphone applications.

With regard to the efforts made to encourage and generalize such pilot experiments throughout the national territory, in particular for the benefit of inhabitants of rural areas, the Minister cited the operation launched by Algérie Poste, in the commune of Menaa, wilaya of Batna, which aspires within the framework of government coordination, to evaluate the current achievements and to work for the provision of all material means and legal frameworks, in addition to the launching of incentive initiatives for citizens in order to adopt electronic payment methods.
As an indication, the project of the “new electronic payment pilot city” officially launched today under the theme “electronic payment….ease, security and insurance”, under the patronage of the Ministry of Finance and joint initiative of the Association of Banks and Financial Establishments and the GIE Monétique, aims to launch a first pilot site as part of the generalization of electronic payment in the new town of Sidi Abdellah, with the evaluation of the performance of this system in order to generalize it to other sites and other regions.