Diaspora Remittances to Tunisia: Volumes, Costs, Digital Channels

Diaspora remittances are one of Tunisia's largest sources of foreign currency. According to Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) data, transfers recorded as labour income reached TND 8,761.6 million in 2025, more than the country earned from tourism. How that money travels, and what it costs, is slowly changing as app-based transfer services compete with agents, banks and the suitcase of cash.

How big are diaspora remittances in Tunisia?

The BCT publishes "revenus du travail" (labour income) in its daily monetary and financial indicators. This line is made up mainly of transfers by Tunisians residing abroad, known locally as TRE. The latest annual figures:

• 2024: TND 8,262.6 million;
• 2025: TND 8,761.6 million, an increase of about 6%.

The trend continued in 2026. By 20 August 2026, cumulative labour income stood at TND 5,868.7 million, up 5.4% on the same date in 2025, according to BCT figures reported by La Presse. Tourism receipts over the same period were TND 5,127.5 million, so the diaspora brought in about TND 741 million more than tourists did.

These flows matter for the country's external position: together with tourism, they are among the main sources of hard currency that support the BCT's reserves, which stood at 98 days of imports on 24 August 2026.

The diaspora behind those numbers is large. Business News puts the number of Tunisians living abroad at close to two million, mainly in Europe.

What official figures miss

BCT data only captures money that passes through formal channels. A large share of support to families travels differently: cash carried home during summer visits, goods, or informal exchange networks. A 2022 Inkyfada investigation cited World Bank estimates that informal flows can equal 50% or more of a country's recorded remittances, and an estimate that only around 5% of Tunisian remittances pass through banks. Neither figure is an official Tunisian measurement, and we could not find a recent one.

The gap is partly a question of price. Formal transfers are converted through the official foreign exchange market, while informal channels can offer a better rate or simply more convenience. In 2021, then BCT governor Marouane El Abassi said publicly that transfer costs to Tunisia were significantly higher than in other countries and that the goal was to move Tunisians abroad from informal transfers to formal finance. He mentioned easing account-opening rules for recent emigrants and using new technologies to cut costs. The ongoing foreign exchange code reform is the main lever that could change these incentives.

What it costs to send money to Tunisia

The World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide database tracks the France to Tunisia corridor, the country's largest. In the third quarter of 2025 (data collected in August 2025), the average total cost of sending the equivalent of $200 was 5.50%: an average fee of EUR 4.52 plus a 2.27% exchange rate margin. That is well above the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%.

The average hides a huge spread:

• Online transfers to a bank account were the cheapest. Attijariwafa Bank's online service cost 0.61%, and MoneyGram's cheapest online option 2.49%.
• App-based money transfer operators such as WorldRemit (3.58%) and Remitly (4.08% for delivery in under an hour) sat in the middle.
• Cash at an agent cost more: 6.89% with Ria and 9.81% with Western Union, mostly because of the exchange rate margin.
• A traditional bank branch was the most expensive option surveyed, at 28.24% for Société Générale.

The lesson for senders is that the channel matters more than the brand, and that the exchange rate margin often weighs more than the visible fee.

Digital channels are gaining ground

Sending money to Tunisia used to mean queuing at an agency, a bank or a post office. A growing share now starts on a smartphone, even if the money often ends up as cash.

App-based senders

Taptap Send launched its Tunisia service in April 2022 with no sending fees, from countries including France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, the UK, Canada and the US. At launch, recipients collected cash from around 300 points of the Swared network run by Viamobile, one of the first payment institutions licensed by the BCT. In March 2026, Business News described the shift to smartphone-based sending, citing Taptap Send's presence in more than 80 countries. Global operators such as Remitly, WorldRemit, Western Union and MoneyGram also offer online transfers to Tunisian bank accounts or cash pick-up.

The receiving side

The weak link is often the last mile. Many recipients still want cash. Payment institutions and wallets, covered in our guides to payment institutions and mobile payments in Tunisia, could let families receive and spend transfers digitally, but crediting a Tunisian wallet directly from abroad depends on BCT foreign exchange rules and on partnerships with licensed intermediaries.

Why it matters for fintechs

Remittances combine a large, recurring flow with a customer base that already uses digital tools abroad. For Tunisian fintechs, the openings are concrete:

• Receiving wallets that turn an incoming transfer into bill payments, savings or merchant payments instead of an immediate cash withdrawal;
• Diaspora products, such as savings, investment or housing finance for TRE, which banks have long promised but rarely digitised;
• Price transparency, given how much costs vary between channels;
• Data: a documented history of incoming transfers could support credit scoring for households with thin files, a theme of our financial inclusion coverage.

The constraints are regulatory rather than technical. Any player handling cross-border flows needs a licensed partner and must follow foreign exchange and AML/CFT and e-KYC rules. How fast digital channels win share from cash will depend largely on how far the foreign exchange reform goes.