In El Salvador, remittances are a key economic driver, contributing to 24 percent of the country’s GDP in 2024 and totaling nearly $10 billion in 2025. For millions of Salvadorans – many of whom are low-income households and small businesses traditionally excluded from formal financial systems — remittances form the backbone of their household income. They fund groceries, school fees, rent, and business operations. “It’s a big help for me and my son,” says Estefany, a single mother and entrepreneur in San Salvador. In addition to her job as a sales associate, she supports herself and her son with income from her side business selling flower arrangements and remittances from her aunt.
When remittances are received, using the funds for bill payments and other transactions poses challenges. Most remittances are withdrawn and spent in cash, and while cash remains the most prevalent option for making daily purchases, it comes with real costs: withdrawal fees, higher over-the-counter bill payment fees, risk of theft and robbery, time lost traveling to agent locations or bank branches, and waiting in long lines to complete basic transactions — creating additional barriers to inclusion for the country’s underserved population.
Accion, through its partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, has been working with Bancoagrícola, El Salvador’s largest bank, to address these issues by integrating underserved El Salvadorians into the digital economy. Leveraging Bancoagrícola’s role in facilitating inbound remittance transfers and the Nequi payments wallet, the project has enabled a faster, lower-cost experience for receiving and utilizing funds, while extending the solution across a broad ecosystem of users — from youth to marketplace merchants.
“Before Nequi, to pay my bills, I had to go stand in long lines at the agency or the bank or at convenience stores where you pay for water and electricity. It was difficult for me, since I have my children, and it is hard for me to go out a lot with them,” says Karla Córdova, another Nequi user in San Salvador who uses the platform to receive remittances and make digital transactions.
Nequi enables users to receive remittances directly into their digital wallet and seamlessly make everyday purchases from their phones. The platform eliminates the requirement for costly cash withdrawals through its integration with a wider ecosystem of services, allowing users to pay bills, top up airtime, make peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, and pay merchants in real time, without additional fees.
“Standing in line to pay bills or walking somewhere just to top up my phone, I don’t do that anymore. The time I used to waste standing in lines and all that, now I dedicate it to my son,” says Estefany. “Everything I do is for my son.”
Beyond greater flexibility and convenience, Nequi enables users to build a transaction history that increases their visibility and participation in the financial system. To date, thousands of users are already using the platform, with early results indicating that those who receive remittances directly into their Nequi wallet are significantly more active, transacting 45 percent more on average than non-remittance users across a range of payment use cases.
Furthermore, customers receiving remittances directly into their Nequi wallet were reported as being more active in usage of the Nequi companion card, transacting 33 percent more frequently and spending 46 percent more per user. Beyond streamlining daily purchases, Nequi also helps small businesses accept payments digitally, opening up a broader customer base and improving operational convenience.
Though Estefany opened her Nequi account for her personal financial needs, like receiving remittances and making purchases, she’s now using it for her side business as well. She generates a link in Nequi that her customers can use to easily pay her by card or through digital transfer. For small merchants, the ability to make and accept digital payments reduces cash handling, increases serviceable customers, and improves efficiency, safety, customer service, and day-to-day operations.
By removing friction at each stage of the process of funding and utilizing digital payments, Bancoagrícola has addressed many of the issues typically associated with cash alternatives and enabled its customers to benefit from the digital economy.
In a country where remittances shape daily economic life, improving how they are received and used matters. Digitizing remittances is more than an entry point to digital payments — it creates the potential to connect underserved people to a wider array of financial solutions that can open new opportunities and strengthen resilience over time. By offering a simple, low‑cost digital ecosystem with multiple financial transaction use cases for everyday needs, from remittances to payments to savings, Bancoagrícola and Nequi are providing a pathway to financial security for underserved Salvadorans.
