Islamic Fintech in Tunisia: Zitouna, Al Baraka and Wifak

Islamic fintech in Tunisia sits on a small but steadily growing base. Tunisia's three Islamic banks (Banque Zitouna, Al Baraka Bank and Wifak Bank) held about 8% of the banking sector's deposits at the end of 2023, and their digital offers, from mobile wallets to microfinance software, are where the most visible fintech activity is happening.

The Islamic banking base

Islamic finance in Tunisia gained a full legal framework with Law 2016-48 on banks and financial institutions. According to Oxford Business Group, it was the first dedicated regulatory framework for sharia-compliant services, and its final text allowed conventional banks to offer Islamic products through "Islamic windows".

Three banks dominate the segment. Ilboursa's analysis of 2023 accounts shows their combined market shares:

• Deposits: 8.0% of the sector (up 0.2 points)
• Loans: 7.4% (up 0.6 points)
• Total assets: 6.9% (up 0.2 points)

Their combined loan book reached TND 7,943 million in 2023, of which murabaha (cost-plus sale) accounted for 71.5% and ijara (leasing) for 15.5%. Combined net banking income was TND 564 million and net profit TND 140 million.

By size, the three are very different. African Manager's review of 2025 accounts gives total assets of about TND 8,150 million for Zitouna, TND 2,657 million for Al Baraka Tunisia and TND 2,046 million for Wifak. Wifak, the smallest, has grown fastest: Challenges reports a five-year asset growth rate of about 20% a year, and Fitch upgraded its national long-term rating to BBB-(tun) in March 2026.

Islamic fintech in Tunisia: who is building what

Most Islamic fintech activity in Tunisia comes from the banks' own subsidiaries and partners rather than independent startups.

Zitouna Payment and the izi app

Banque Zitouna set up Zitouna Payment, a payment institution approved by the BCT in November 2021. It launched the izi mobile payment app in March 2022, offering account opening, cash deposits and withdrawals, person-to-person transfers, bill payments and phone top-ups. Users without a smartphone can transact through a network of mandated agents. At launch, Banque Zitouna held 51% of the company, alongside Zitouna Takaful and Zitouna Finance, and the company said it started with 500 agents. See our overview of payment institutions in Tunisia.

Al Baraka's mobile wallet

In August 2022 Al Baraka Bank announced a mobile wallet service in Tunisia with Tunisian Digital Finance for People (TDFP), a subsidiary of VYZYO. The service was designed for government and merchant payments, transfers and disbursements such as pensions and micro-insurance, and could work on basic phones through SMS, USSD and voice.

Islamic microfinance goes digital

Zitouna Tamkeen, an Islamic microfinance institution founded with the Islamic Development Bank, Banque Zitouna, Zitouna Takaful and other sponsors, began operating in December 2016. In June 2025 it put into production a credit management platform, ICM, from Tunisian vendor Talys Solutions. The platform covers onboarding, online financing requests, scoring, AML checks, disbursement and recovery, and includes a rules engine for Islamic financing products and reporting aligned with the microfinance supervisor (ACM). More on the sector in our microfinance in Tunisia article.

Startups

Independent Islamic fintech startups remain rare. One example is PAYDAY Takaful, which says it offers interest-free salary advances backed by payroll and bundled with takaful micro-insurance. In an October 2025 press release, the company announced an undisclosed pre-seed round led by United Gulf Financial Services – North Africa, with TALYS Group and BioProtection among the investors. Its reported volumes come from the company itself and have not been independently verified.

Why digital matters more for Islamic banks

Islamic banks in Tunisia face specific constraints that technology can help address:

• Product complexity. Murabaha and ijara involve buying and reselling or leasing an asset, which creates more documents and steps than a conventional loan. Digital workflows reduce cost and errors.
• Scale. With a single-digit market share, Islamic banks cannot match the branch networks of the largest conventional banks. Agent networks and apps extend their reach at lower cost.
• Cost efficiency. Challenges notes that Wifak's cost-to-income ratio of 71.2% in 2025 reflects heavy technology investment to absorb new customers, and identifies digital customer journeys and industrialised credit scoring as priorities.
• Inclusion. Some Tunisians avoid interest-based products for religious reasons. Sharia-compliant digital services can reach people who would otherwise stay outside formal finance. See our overview of financial inclusion in Tunisia.

Opportunities and limits for founders

For founders, the Islamic segment offers a few concrete openings:

1. B2B software for Islamic banks, microfinance institutions and takaful insurers, as the Talys example shows.
2. Sharia-compliant consumer finance, such as earned-wage access or instalment sales, provided the structure is validated by a sharia board and fits Tunisian regulation.
3. Agent-based distribution in regions where Islamic banks are underrepresented.

The limits are real. The market is small, regulation does not distinguish "Islamic fintech" as a separate category, and any product touching deposits or credit falls under the BCT's banking and payment rules. Founders need both a sharia adviser and a regulatory adviser from the start.