Djibouti engages Visa, Tech5 for national digital wallet rollout

The Djiboutian government has taken a major step towards enhancing digital inclusion with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with U.S. payments giant Visa for the development of national digital wallet.

The Dibouti government authorities signed the MoU with Visa representatives on September 16 in the capital Asmara.

Tech5 confirmed its involvement in the deal in an email to Biometric Update.

According to Djiboutian officials, the idea is to develop and roll out a digital wallet which apart from expanding access to digital services, will also drive financial inclusion by facilitating access to money services by citizens of the Horn of Africa nation.

It shall be called a “Smart Wallet”. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Innovation announced the signing of the MoU in a LinkedIn Post, saying it will “enable citizens, entrepreneurs and residents to access public services, digital payments and digital identity within a secure and inclusive environment.”

It is not clear when the development of the wallet and its rollout will happen, but according to the government, the move is sure to substantially contribute to the country’s digital economy growth.

Rahul Parthe, Tech5 co-founder, chairman and CTO said: “We are happy to work with our partner Visa on promoting and advancing Digital Public Infrastructure in various countries.”

“This is one of the several initiatives where we see the appreciation for the concept of Digital Public Ecosystem. We believe that it will not only accelerate digital transformation but increase the GDP,” he added. Djibouti’s real GDP growth reached 6.0 percent in 2024 and is projected to moderate to around 5.1 percent annually between 2025–2027, per World Bank estimates.

Tech5 and Visa have a solid partnership which was recently extended by a new collaboration that will last seven years.

Both companies intend to make biometrics a central part of their efforts to develop and deploy digital public infrastructure (DPI) for partners around the world. Specifically, they hope to integrate biometric authentication capabilities in digital wallets they develop for customers.

The two companies also worked together in the development and rollout of Ethiopia’s FaydaPass digital wallet which was unveiled in May on the sidelines of the 2025 ID4Africa AGM. Tech5’s Chairman and a Visa executive spoke in one panel at that AGM about how to leverage digital ID to drive financial inclusion. The Ethiopian government admired that the wallet will accelerate efforts toward stronger financial inclusion.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  digital wallet  |  Djibouti  |  financial inclusion  |  TECH5  |  Visa