Licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib: Wafacash and Money Fellows Launch a Strategic Partnership at GITEX Africa to Digitize “Daret”

WHY THIS MATTERS
This partnership between Money Fellows and Wafacash highlights an important evolution in financial inclusion: digitising culturally embedded financial behaviours rather than replacing them. Savings circles like “Daret” are deeply rooted in Moroccan society, providing informal access to credit and savings for individuals who may not engage with traditional banking. By transforming this model into a regulated, digital offering, the initiative brings greater security, transparency, and scalability to a system that already has strong user trust.

Regulatory approval from Bank Al-Maghrib is a key milestone, signalling growing institutional support for alternative financial models that bridge informal and formal systems. With enhanced features such as scoring mechanisms and digital management, the model can improve reliability and expand access while maintaining its original social structure. As seen in Egypt, where Money Fellows has scaled to over one million users, digitised ROSCA (rotating savings and credit association) models can play a significant role in extending financial services to underserved populations.

In a significant step toward enhancing financial inclusion, Money Fellows and Wafacash announced the signing of a strategic partnership to develop the traditional savings circles practice known in Morocco as “Daret,” transforming it into a secure and regulated digital model. The announcement was made during GITEX Africa. This comes after obtaining all the necessary regulatory approvals from Bank Al-Maghrib, giving this innovative service an official and secure status in the Moroccan market.

This step follows the notable success achieved by Money Fellows in the Egyptian market, where the company has successfully served more than one million users and built an extensive network of over 350 local and regional partners, reinforcing its readiness to bring this successful model to the Kingdom of Morocco. 

The key aspects of this collaboration include strengthening financial inclusion by financially empowering individuals through transforming and developing existing saving practices rather than replacing them, ensuring broader access to services across Moroccan society. The partnership also aims to enhance security and reliability through digital management mechanisms, scoring systems, and digitization, which will transform “Daret” into a system characterized by high transparency and a greater ability to manage commitments effectively. This initiative is rooted in innovation that does not treat technology as an end in itself, but rather as a tool to develop a widely adopted behavior and make it more aligned with modern financial requirements without compromising its original essence.

This partnership is based on the deep integration between Money Fellows’ technological expertise and Wafacash’s strong infrastructure, distribution network, and customer proximity. This synergy enables the delivery of a financial solution that meets user needs and is capable of scaling widely. Beyond mere technical digitization, the partnership represents a broader transformation of financial models, clearly demonstrating how innovation and existing practices can come together to create sustainable solutions with real impact on people’s lives. 

Commenting on the partnership, Ahmed Wadi, Founder and CEO of Money Fellows, said: “This step marks the official beginning of our expansion into Morocco, as part of our journey to financially empower individuals through collaboration with leading players in the Kingdom’s financial sector. We are moving from a partial model based on limited circles to a system capable of scaling and wide adoption, representing a real evolution of the traditional financial model.” 

For his part, Abdesslam Bouirig, CEO of Wafacash, stated: “At Wafacash, we believe that true innovation should first stem from real use cases in order to deliver tangible, useful, and sustainable solutions. Our partnership with Money Fellows clearly reflects this shared vision by developing a deeply rooted social financial practice into a digital model that is simpler, more transparent, secure, and scalable. Through this collaboration, Wafacash reaffirms its commitment to impactful innovation and to contributing to greater financial inclusion in Morocco.”

FF NEWS TAKE
This is a smart approach to fintech innovation—starting with behaviour, not technology. By building on an existing, widely trusted system, Money Fellows and Wafacash are reducing the barriers to adoption that often limit new financial products in emerging markets.

That said, scaling will depend on execution. Balancing automation with the social trust that underpins savings circles is critical, and user confidence must be maintained as the model becomes more formalised. If done well, this could become a blueprint for how fintechs expand across regions—adapting to local financial habits rather than trying to reshape them entirely.