Digital Financial Services Pivot

How Palestinian e-wallets and digital payment systems transformed from commercial growth engines to humanitarian lifelines

Data Source: Palestine Monetary Authority, Financial Stability Reports (2022-2024)

Pre-Conflict Digital Finance Landscape (2019-2023)

25%
Transaction Accounts
Adults (2017)
1.62M
Payment Cards
2022
15.1%
Financial Inclusion
Account ownership
28
Licensed PSCs
Payment Service Cos

E-Wallet Distribution (2022)

Gaza

High volume, low value
Share of Users 55%
✓ Primary tool for financial inclusion under blockade
✓ Enabled access despite limited banking infrastructure

West Bank

Lower volume, higher value
Share of Funds 53%
✓ Commercial transactions and business use
✓ Higher value per transaction

I-BURAQ Platform

Palestine's National Digital Financial Infrastructure
$1.83B
Total Transaction Value
2024 (Annual)
$550M+
Digital Payments
E-wallet transactions
28
Connected PSCs
Licensed operators

Platform Capabilities

  • ✓ Interoperability between payment providers
  • ✓ Real-time transaction settlement
  • ✓ Mobile money transfers
  • ✓ Bill payments and merchant services
  • ✓ Government payment integration

Key Providers

  • • Jawwal Pay - Market leader in mobile wallets
  • • PalPay - E-commerce payments
  • • Bank PSCs - Licensed payment services
  • • Fintech Startups - Emerging innovators

Post-October 2023: Humanitarian Pivot

Financial Infrastructure Crisis

Gaza Bank Branches 93%
Damaged or destroyed (Jul 2024)
Consequences
  • • Traditional banking effectively ceased
  • • ATM network destroyed
  • • Physical cash shortages
  • • Branch access impossible

Digital Lifeline Emerged

Humanitarian Role
  • • Aid distribution via mobile wallets
  • • Food assistance transfers
  • • Cash-based aid delivery
  • • Bypassing destroyed infrastructure
Critical Function
Digital financial services became the primary mechanism for humanitarian aid distribution in cash-scarce, infrastructure-destroyed environment.

Functional Transformation

Pre-Conflict Primary Use
Commercial transactions (55%)
Peer-to-peer transfers (25%)
Bill payments (15%)
Financial inclusion (5%)
Post-Crisis Primary Use
Humanitarian aid distribution (60%)
Emergency cash transfers (20%)
Food assistance vouchers (12%)
Survival commerce (8%)

Resilience Story: Jawwal Pay

Market Leader
Largest e-wallet provider in Palestine
Pre-Conflict
Commercial growth and retail adoption
Post-Crisis
Humanitarian aid distribution partner

Jawwal Pay exemplifies the dual nature of digital resilience in the Palestinian context. Built as a commercial fintech solution to overcome payment barriers (no PayPal access, 86.5% cash-on-delivery), the platform's infrastructure proved critical when the conflict destroyed traditional banking in Gaza. The same digital rails that powered e-commerce growth became lifelines for humanitarian response, distributing aid to populations cut off from physical banks and ATMs.

Persistent Challenges

Regulatory Gaps

  • ⚠ No personal data protection law
  • ⚠ Limited cybersecurity framework
  • ⚠ Digital signatures not legally recognized
  • ⚠ Consumer trust remains low

Access Barriers

  • ✗ No PayPal or international payment gateways
  • ✗ 86.5% of e-commerce still cash-on-delivery
  • ✗ High fees for international workarounds
  • ✗ Gaza's infrastructure remains destroyed

Key Insight

Palestinian digital financial services demonstrate a paradox of crisis-driven resilience. The same I-BURAQ infrastructure and e-wallet platforms that emerged to overcome pre-conflict payment barriers (blockade, no international payment access) became critical humanitarian lifelines when traditional banking infrastructure was systematically destroyed.

From Growth Engine...
$1.83B annual transactions, financial inclusion tool, commercial innovation
...To Survival Mechanism
Humanitarian aid distribution, emergency cash transfers, last-resort financial access