App helps Mexican tortilla makers join digital economy [Video]

Long marginalized by the banking industry, Mexico’s neighborhood tortilla producers are cautiously embracing financial technology, in a country where cash is still king for many.

The National Tortilla Council and technology firm Finsus have developed a mobile application that allows vendors of the staple food to charge customers using cards, QR codes or a cellphone number.

“It’s revolutionizing the industry,” said the organization’s president, Homero Lopez Garcia, whose ambitious goal is for 90 percent of tortilla makers to use the app within three years.

The feedback from those who have tried it has been positive: “They say ‘I like it, I understand it’,” he said.

The hope is that the app will also enable tortilla producers to generate additional income by offering their clients cellphone top-up and bill payment services.

For many, the app is their first link to the formal financial industry.

Only around half of Mexico’s 129 million …