52 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 42 | 2024 fidence in the process. Mobile options also allow for family and friends who live far away to participate in ROSCAs. These conditions suggest market potential in Morocco for formal mobile ROSCA products that could bolster financial inclusion while serving as potential gateways for further involvement in the formal financial sector. In fact, formalizing ROSCAs in this way has proven successful in other African countries. Money Fellows is an Egyptian start-up that provides a mobile platform for savings circles has crossed four million users. MaTontine from Senegal and Tontine Plus in Cameroon are additional mobile ROSCA-management platforms that have gained traction, further suggesting room for formalized informal financial mechanisms in Morocco (E. Asmar, interview, February 14, 2024). Financially formalizing independent retail shops An additional opportunity for fostering usage of formal financial products in Morocco lies in a financial transaction system crucial to the livelihoods of the unbanked. Independent retail shops, known as hanouts in Morocco, are integral to household consumption across Morocco, responsible for 82% of retail sales in the country (Ivers et al., 2022). As this system evolves to become more financially included itself, the uptake of formal financial services among individuals and households will follow. Independent retail shops share their importance throughout Africa. Innovative business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce products have emerged to assist these shops in managing operations and financial transactions. According to Briter Intelligence (2022), 28 B2B e-commerce fintech startups throughout Africa have raised almost $500M since 2008, 90% of which occurred in 2021 and 2022. These platforms generally offer services, such as procurement, payments, inventory management, credit, and bookkeeping (Ivers et al., 2022). These services fit the needs of independent retailers who face issues such as complex and disjointed supply chains, difficulties in recording transactions, and gaps in providing varieties of payment methods (Briter Intelligence, 2022). Moroccan start-up Chari, founded in 2020, has seen rapid growth. Chari’s platform allows independent retailers to purchase goods online or through a mobile app and receive orders within 24 hours rather than closing their shops and physically traveling to wholesalers. As of 2023, Chari is working with 25,000 independent retailers and has begun to expand further, acquiring the platform Karny to provide credit to retailers and transaction-recording solutions (UNSGSA, 2023a). Due to the success of B2B platforms, Moroccan hanouts are becoming efficient vehicles for financial inclusion, helping mitigate the three phenomena hindering usage (E. Asmar, interview, February 14, 2024). These platforms address informality and cash reliance, as hanouts are entrenched in the informal economy and retail makes up half of Morocco’s informal sector (Oxford Business Group, n.d.). Notably, 97% of Kenyan convenience stores accept mobile payments, but just 1% do in Morocco (Ivers et al., 2022). Despite roots of informality, independent retail shops play an important role in digital financial infrastructure globally, acting as agents for banks and mobile money operators where customers can convert cash into digital currency outside of physical branches (Priollaud & Saudi, 2023). Panamax Inc. (2023) reports that agents facilitate more than 25% of banking transactions in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The UN Development Programme, however, explains that agency banking is “relatively underdeveloped” in Morocco due to stringent regulation, with many hanouts fearing that participation will reveal their informal status and result in taxation or legal penalties (Priollaud & Saudi, 2023). Mobile B2B platforms, however, are digitizing the ways in which independent retailers operate and accept payments, encouraging customers to follow their lead and use payment methods other than cash. The financial formalization of independent retailers is also bridging financial knowledge gaps and bypassing negative perceptions of formal financial services. Hanouts serve not only a critical economic purpose for Moroccans who purchase most of their consumer goods at these shops but also a cultural purpose; they are broadly considered the “cornerstone of socioeconomic systems across Africa.” Moroccan hanouts are open extensive hours; 90% offer informal credit; and most offer options for customers to pay utility bills at their locations (Ivers et al., 2022). Because hanouts are major socioeconomic resources for the banked and unbanked alike, Moroccans’ familiarity with these shops makes them ideal locations to educate customers about formal finance products. The unbanked also trust these shops as they are so culturally important to how they manage their consumption and perform other household functions. The upsurge of digital B2B platforms for independent retailers in Morocco not only is a solution for financial inclusion of the independent retail industry but also holds potential to facilitate formal service
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