Today, the “Posi” Program for Accelerating the Adoption of Electronic Payments was launched in partnership with Mastercard Europe, marking a significant step forward in reducing informality and fostering the growth of the Albanian economy.
Mastercard is committed to supporting the Albanian government’s vision for accelerating the country’s digital transformation through the “Digital Partnership Program for Albania”—a four-year initiative that facilitates collaboration between the public and private sectors. This program will focus on three key pillars: digitalizing payments and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, data-driven tourism, and strengthening cybersecurity.
With strong backing from the government and an awareness campaign targeting both merchants and citizens, this transformation will create new opportunities, reduce costs, and lead to a more robust and resilient economy for all.
The event was also addressed by Prime Minister Rama, who highlighted the importance of this initiative.
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Hello everyone! First, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Mastercard Director for Europe and his entire team, who, as the director mentioned, are visiting Albania for the second time and this time to launch a product that is essential for the market, welcomed by the Bank of Albania and the second-level banks, and very beneficial for the citizens of this country.
For us, it is very important that Mastercard is entering Albania because, as the director said, today the Albanian market is ready to adopt Mastercard’s product. On the other hand, Mastercard’s arrival is highly welcomed because it is time for our digital revolution to deepen even further, particularly in simplifying and improving the payment system in the country.
We have done an outstanding job with online services. Today, we have over 95% of the services provided by the state available online. So, very few special services require the physical presence of individuals.
With this revolution, we have, according to an international audit conducted to assess the direct impact on the Albanian economy, saved 620 million euros simply from shifting services from physical, counter-based ones, with long queues, travel costs, gasoline, etc., to online services. That’s a savings of 620 million euros.
Even more surprising is that the equivalent of 25,000 trips around the Earth has been saved in terms of travel distance by people, thanks to online services. It’s important to note that this online platform also benefits all Albanians abroad. Without it, they would have had to travel to Albania for many services, or for certain essential services, they would have had to go to the nearest Albanian consulate or embassy.
Now, when it comes to payments, we have some alarming statistics, particularly regarding the widespread use of cash and the minimal use of credit cards. However, the positive news is that when we took office, around 30% of citizens had a bank account, and today that number has risen to nearly 80%. This means we now have a critical mass that we can engage in this entire process. On the other hand, as the director mentioned, Mastercard has consistently ranked Albania highly in its classifications of the most popular tourist destinations.
Today, Albania is at the top in tourism, as the country with the highest growth in tourist arrivals among a group of countries. On the other hand, we observe that tourism revenues have reached nearly 5 billion euros, yet only 4% of transactions are made with credit cards.
This highlights the significant gap and shows how much money, which does not belong to those who hold it, should be returned to citizens for VAT, and how much more revenue should be returned to citizens through taxes. This is why we believe that the digitalization of payments is one of the key instruments, if not the most direct one, for achieving this.
However, what we have consistently discussed under the leadership of the Minister for Entrepreneurship and Business Climate is that we want to make this process smooth, and with Mastercard, the discussion we’ve had and the philosophy with which the director and his team have presented it to us is that we should not enter a new phase of forcing citizens to engage with businesses or businesses with citizens through imposition and coercive measures. Instead, we should start with an invitation for cooperation, which Mastercard is actually materializing with this program.
Not only that, but Mastercard also has a certain limit for users of these services, who do not pay any commission, meaning 0% commission, up to a specified annual threshold. Beyond this threshold, the commission begins. It’s positive what the director said, that according to Mastercard’s study, over 50% of business operators consider this opportunity positively.
So, for all these reasons, without going into further detail, I believe today is a very good day for us, a very good day for the market, and a very good day for the banks. Banks always have good days here in Albania; they are also the only type of business in the world that, when something doesn’t go well for them, they charge their customers. The government could never do this.
Once again, I would like to thank you all. I won’t go on speaking, as I’m not accustomed to speaking for long, but I want to reiterate what the Governor said: it’s crucial that all banks actively support this process. It’s very important for us. And now, I hope that with Mastercard’s arrival, we will also have the opportunity to welcome VISA to Albania. They won’t stay away now, because when we used to invite them, they would say, “Albania is not yet interesting enough for us.” Now that Albania has become interesting, Mastercard has come first.
We are now on Mastercard’s side, and VISA should know that here they will face a much higher challenge in making agreements with us.
Thank you all very much, and I wish the banks great success, as they truly need it.
