Beyond the beaches: How the digital economy is transforming Mauritius

Flying over the Indian Ocean, you could easily miss Mauritius. Located some 600 miles east of Madagascar, the island is so tiny that it barely registers on a world map, like a blip on a radar. Those lucky enough to visit will never forget its beauty. An idyllic tourist hot spot with pristine white sand beaches, crystal-clear turquoise waters and lush green landscapes, it’s a destination of choice for honeymooning couples the world over.

“Mauritius was made first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius,” goes Mark Twain’s famous line about the island.

Yet Twain’s words do not do Mauritius justice — especially not today. Despite its “Fantasy Island” vibe, Mauritius is no land of make-believe. It’s an African power player in the digital economy race.

Once upon a time, the small island nation of nearly 1.3 million people was almost completely dependent on sugar crop production — a vestige of its colonial past. But it dedicated the 20th century to diversifying its single-crop economy into one boasting industries ranging from technology to textiles and a per capita income exceeding $10,000 — overtaking much more populous African countries such as South Africa and Libya.

In the budding days of the digital era, Mauritius kept pace, offering reliable internet service and a sprawling “cybercity” complex outside its capital, Port Louis. Yet its leaders realized this wasn’t enough. In order for its citizens to thrive in the global digital economy, Mauritius needed an ecosystem capable of fostering its people’s ambitions.

So in 2018, the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation laid out its lofty vision in a hefty 38-page document entitled the Digital Mauritius 2030 Strategic Plan.

Following extensive consultation with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the management consultant firm Gartner, the plan focuses on five areas: digital government, information and communications technology infrastructure, innovation, talent management and cybersecurity.

It details how the nation will spur innovation, expand public services and boost job opportunities with the intention of ultimately driving economic growth. And, as its authors boldly state, the aim of the 2030 Strategic Plan is “to embed the use of technology in the day-to-day life of every Mauritian … This implies that Government services, businesses and lifestyle would be centered around the digital economy.”

But a lot of countries concoct elaborate strategies like this. The difference is that in Mauritius it’s actually working. And the country has made that happen in a handful of ways, with the government creating centralized digital building blocks to streamline banking, the main university integrating technology into more aspects of learning, and local businesses embracing new digital tools.

This work has implications that go well beyond this “blip” in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius’ early successes now offer a potential blueprint for other countries looking to jump-start their digital transformation and bring their own businesses and citizens along for the ride. That work can start by bringing together a broad coalition — government, nonprofits, educators and businesses — just as Mauritius is doing today.

To share a sense of how Mauritius reached this point, meet a few diverse residents of this vibrant and welcoming island who have tapped into new technology, new ideas and their personal pluck to claim their position in the digital economy.

HAB’s Biryani Corner: A taste of Mauritius

It’s 12 noon and the constant hum of midday traffic in the town of Rose Hill is drowned out only by the raucous screams of primary school kids tirelessly racing across the playground.

Around the corner, the lunchtime rush at HAB’s Biryani Corner is in full swing. Customers flock to the storefront while Habib Noursing, a devout Muslim, is about to make his way to the mosque for the Dhuhr (early afternoon) prayer.

His wife, Samia, is holding court at the food counter. Wearing a beige hijab and draped in traditional Islamic attire, she enthusiastically serves up biryani, one of the island’s most beloved dishes, to customers. Biryani consists of fragrant basmati rice, tender marinated meat (or fish), fried golden brown potatoes, deep-fried onions and a range of spices, all harmoniously layered and lovingly cooked to perfection.

But this kind of takeaway food isn’t made to order. It takes a military-style operation to pull it off, as Samia well knows. Every day, she arrives at the local market by 6 a.m. to buy fresh meat, vegetables and spices and returns home to prepare the ingredients. The intricate cooking process usually takes her two or three hours from start to finish, all in the nick of time for HAB’s opening at 10 a.m.

“We’re in the biryani business. It’s hard work!” Samia exclaims.

Based on the long line of customers, Samia’s adherence to these traditional cooking methods looks to be paying off. However, she and her husband have also benefited from taking a more modern approach to managing their company’s finances.

For instance, within two weeks of opening, HAB’s began accepting digital payments.

“So many customers asked for it,” explains Samia. “Firstly, digital payment is more secure. And secondly, customers prefer to make digital payment on the spot rather than walk to an ATM, withdraw cash and return to the shop to pay, especially for food that only costs 200” Mauritian rupees (approximately $4).

Sales increased shortly after HAB’s began accepting Emtel’s Blink app, and went up another notch when the restaurant added the my.T Money app as a second digital payment option. Samia says she is open to experimenting with other forms of digital payment, including cryptocurrency, to further improve the customer experience.

But when it comes to discussing plans for expansion, such as opening a new location, she remains characteristically tight-lipped. In Mauritius, the prevailing philosophy in business — and in life — is “show, don’t tell.”

Besides, who has time to share secrets when there is biryani to be made?

Grubmates: The Mauritian answer to Uber Eats

Ensconced in their cozy home office in the charming seaside village of Flic-en-Flac in 2023, John and Olga Popel were hatching big plans.

They were poised to introduce Mauritius to its first Uber Eats-style delivery service by launching Grubmates, a scrappy startup promising to deliver “food, groceries, medicine and more” throughout the island’s west coast — all within an hour.

From day one, the Eastern European expats sank all their time and resources to make good on this promise, often making deliveries by car, bike or electric scooter and even traveling on foot. But there was one shortcoming in those early days: Grubmates only accepted cash.

“Within a month, it became clear that most of our customers didn’t always have cash available,” says John Popel, the company’s charismatic CEO and co-founder. “They wanted to place their orders via WhatsApp and pay for them using Juice,” a popular local mobile banking app.

Grubmates obliged, adopting the payment platform needed to accept Juice, as well as PayPal.

That digital transformation has been paying dividends ever since. In its first year, the company churned out 2,000 deliveries, serviced roughly 1,000 customers, formed more than 100 official partnerships with local businesses and reported a healthy growth rate of 16% month over month.

Up to 60% of those sales come from digital payments.

None of this would have been possible had the Popels debuted Grubmates five years earlier. As part of the 2030 Strategic Plan, the Mauritian government promoted a countrywide digital edict that encouraged banks and other financial institutions to help small businesses like Grubmates to accept digital payments.

“With the help of Mauritius Commercial Bank staff, it only took us a few minutes to activate a corporate Juice account,” says Popel, adding that they were able to accept digital payments in less than an hour.

Aside from bolstering sales, services like Juice also generate valuable metrics, such as customer demographics, customer behavior and sales trends, to help keep Grubmates growing.

With data doing the work, the hardworking Popels may finally find time to do “couples’ things,” like watching Netflix, playing board games and exploring the many labyrinthine hiking trails snaking around the island.

Cim Finance: Future-focused finance

With a broad smile that reaches his eyes, Sudheer Prabhu emits a Zenlike aura. He kick-starts each day with yoga followed by some light meditation to stay centered. It’s a routine that helped him handle several high-pressure situations working for financial institutions in his native city of Mumbai.

Yet nothing prepared Prabhu for what he would experience in the sweltering summer of 2017, when he arrived in Mauritius for a job as a chief information officer at a local bank.

At the time, the Mauritian banking experience was a morass of inefficient processes, mind-numbing paperwork and interminable wait times. Opening a simple bank account required visiting the local bank, where customers often formed lines meandering in and around the building’s interior and onto the sidewalk in the blazing sun.

“Documents had to be manually reviewed, signed and verified by a bank representative, which could lead to frustration,” admits Prabhu. And customers never knew if their account-opening process would take three hours or two days.

Much to the chagrin of customers eager to send money abroad to family and friends, payments and fund transfers also transpired at a snail’s pace. That was because each bank processed customer payments internally. If a customer made a payment from one bank to another, it had to pass through multiple banking systems — sometimes lengthening the processing time to several days.

Furthermore, inter-bank payment required an intermediary to facilitate the transaction, which bumped up transaction fees. And to make matters worse, payment processing took place only during standard business hours. 

It was almost chaotic enough to make Prabhu long for the overcrowded streets of Mumbai.

Then, in 2019, the country’s central bank opened Mauritius Central Automated Switch, a state-of-the-art digital hub better known as MauCAS. The system routes payments between operators and enables payments to be processed 24/7.

Not only did it slash settlement times, but it reduced transaction costs and made the payment system frictionless by routing all payments through one centralized system for settlement at the Bank of Mauritius — whether it’s a customer paying by card, mobile wallet or any other method.

“Things are definitely changing,” says Prabhu, who is now group chief technology officer at Cim Finance, a financial services company that offers lending, insurance and payments services for consumers and small businesses. “With the introduction of digital onboarding, customers can now open accounts within a matter of minutes.” He has witnessed a similar uptick in the efficiency of payment processing and fund transfers.

What’s more, people can manage transactions in real time and access services on their smartphones. “So they rarely need to pay a visit to the bank,” points out Prabhu, flashing his wry smile.

Yet for Prabhu, the real victory of a robust infrastructure is that more Mauritians can access the current banking system by using digital lending tools, which make financial products and services more affordable and convenient.

For instance, Cim Finance offers its Mo Finans app, which enables customers to apply for loans online and, if successful, receive near-instant approvals — a far more attractive option than filling out an application at a lender’s local branch and waiting several weeks for a decision.

Streamlined services like these may help explain why the proportion of Mauritians with bank accounts increased by 10 percentage points between 2011 and 2017, hitting an enviable 90%.

And it certainly helps Prabhu maintain his spiritual equilibrium.

University of Mauritius: The education equalizer

Located in Reduit — a serene, lush green suburb in the center of the island — the University of Mauritius is the oldest and largest university in the country.

Sanjeev K. Sobhee, the vice-chancellor at the university, is a born academic who loves all things economics. If an archetypal economist exists, he fits the bill perfectly. He has a penchant for spotting trends and an even bigger appetite for bucking them.

And throughout his 20-year tenure, Sobhee, who has consulted for the likes of the United Nations and the World Bank, has made it his mission to narrow the digital skills gap — the difference between the digital skills required by the workplace and the skills possessed by the workforce — or, better still, close it altogether.

To equip students with the necessary tools and knowledge for the future job market, Sobhee has focused on spearheading initiatives to integrate digital literacy into the UoM’s curriculum, regardless of the degree they pursue.

For instance, accounting students are required to take a basic computer science class that exposes them to IT applications, databases and computer networking relevant to their area of study.

Beyond academia, the university is fostering a culture of digital entrepreneurship among students and alumni. It started an incubator initiative where students from various fields are provided with the support needed to develop new businesses, Sobhee says.

With an eye toward the future, the vice-chancellor says the UoM’s long-term goal is to accelerate the adoption of digital technology. “Digital innovation and AI will be integrated at every level, including program delivery, administration and research,” he says.

Inset photos from top: HAB’s Biryani Corner and Grubmates, Kieron Johnson. Photo of Le Caudan, Port Louis's waterfront commercial and shopping district, Lisa Wilson. Photo of the University of Mauritius, Adobe Stock.