Ten years. That is how long Senegalese fintech InTouch has committed to working with the Gambian government under a landmark agreement signed on October 30. The deal brings together InTouch, The Gambia's Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, and the Gambia Revenue Authority, and it marks the Dakar-based company's first move into English-speaking Africa.
The contract was awarded through an international competitive tender and centres on a centralised payment monitoring platform for pooling, betting, and gaming companies. Under a Build, Operate and Transfer model, InTouch will deploy, integrate, operate, and maintain the system before eventually handing it over to the government. The platform is designed to give the Gambia Revenue Authority direct access to transaction data, so it no longer has to rely solely on revenue declarations submitted by operators. Automated reconciliation and audit tools will help flag gaps between what companies earn and what they pay in taxes.
InTouch was founded in 2014 by Senegalese entrepreneur Omar Cissé, and this deal signals something of a strategic shift for the company. Rather than chasing transaction volumes in the crowded mobile money and digital payments space, it is planting a flag in government infrastructure, where long-term institutional relationships and regulatory expertise carry real weight. It is a direction that a growing number of Africa's established fintech players are beginning to explore.
The financial terms of the agreement have not been made public, so it is too early to say what the contract means for InTouch's bottom line. What is clear is that a decade-long government engagement is a very different kind of business from the payment-by-payment model the industry has long been built on. Whether this becomes a template InTouch replicates across the continent is the question worth watching.
Originally published by African Business.