Financial inclusion is a very important part of this region. Millions of workers built and run it. The most important first step for them is access to the financial system via a digital wallet. Joining me is Syed Ali, CEO of myZoi. Ali, welcome to the show.
Thank you. Lovely to be here.
Financial inclusion is often seen as corporate responsibility. You have made it commercially viable with 1,100 plus corporate partners. How?
We realised in our research about six years ago that financial exclusion is a major contributor to socioeconomic inequality. About 1.5 billion people globally are either unbanked or underbanked. In the UAE, almost everyone owns a smartphone but for financial services — especially for workers who do not make a lot of money — there is fear and mistrust around scams and losing money. Given the small flows per ticket, traditional institutions had not figured out how to serve this segment. We developed a light go-to-market solution with low customer acquisition costs and took on the responsibility of educating the customer base.
A worker can now open a bank account on day one with just a passport. What does that say about the UAE?
It is amazing — one of very few countries enabling this from day one of arrival. Previously you needed an Emirates ID, which could take one to two months. Until then, you could not receive your salary. We worked with government institutions to enable passport-based onboarding. Now the first day someone lands, they get everything related to their employment along with an account.
You offer earned wage access. How does that help?
We started with basic products — a wallet, a card, and remittances. But financial inclusion is about meeting wider financial needs too. Access to credit was a problem for this customer base because they had no financial footprint. Earned wage access means: if you have worked for 15 days, you have already earned that money even though you are paid on day 30. We can give you part of that earned wage early if you need it.
How are you working toward sub-3% remittance costs?
You have to work on the remittance rails — minimise intermediaries and get close to domestic clearing systems in beneficiary countries. We also introduced a first-to-market one-to-many transfer: if you want to send money to your father and your spouse, you split it into two but pay only one fee.
Ali, it was a pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you very much for having me.
