Morocco’s E-commerce Surges as Bank Card Payments Decline Amid Pandemic

The merchant activity has not escaped the ravages of the coronavirus. At the end of September, a 9% drop in the overall volume was observed, which had shown a 7.8% increase during the first quarter, reports L’Économiste. This development takes into account both payments and withdrawals.

"Moroccan cards recorded 263.6 million transactions for an amount of 224.4 billion dirhams (-9% in number and -4.6% in value)," notes the daily, which notes the dominance of withdrawals (77.7% of transactions and 89.7% of amounts). The same source notes a remarkable drop in foreign cards (53.3% in transactions and 56.4% in amount) and an increase in the number of cards issued and the ATM network. "If the cards issued have increased by 5% to 17 million cards at the end of September, the number of ATMs has increased by 1.6% to 7,738 terminals," it adds.

In financial transactions, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a "change in payment habits with a strong interest from merchants in distance selling with payment via the internet or on 3G POS on delivery". This explains the significant increases (41.5% in number and 24% in amount) in the figures achieved by merchant sites and sites of invoicing companies affiliated with the CMI, i.e. 10 million online payment transactions for a total amount of 4.3 billion dirhams at the end of September, concludes the same source.