Access the press release here.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Seychelles, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the overseas arm of India’s National Payments Corporation, and the Central Bank of Seychelles signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to introduce UPI in the island nation. The MoU was among nine bilateral agreements signed during the visit, covering defence, maritime security, healthcare, and climate.
What UPI in Seychelles would mean: Once implemented, Indian travellers will be able to pay at participating merchants in Seychelles by scanning QR codes with any UPI-linked app, just as they do in Singapore, the UAE, and Mauritius, where UPI is already operational. Payments will be deducted directly from Indian bank accounts and settled in real time, eliminating the need for foreign currency exchange for eligible transactions.
For Seychelles, where tourism is a major contributor to GDP and the number of Indian visitors is increasing, the adoption of QR-based UPI terminals by merchants will support a new category of cashless transactions from a key tourist market.
Where UPI already works internationally: Since 2021, NPCI International has expanded UPI acceptance to several countries, including Singapore, the UAE, France, Mauritius, Bhutan, Nepal, Oman, and Qatar (at select merchants). Seychelles will join this list once the MoU leads to a live deployment, a process that has typically taken several months to more than a year in other markets.
Scale of the rollout: As of February 2026, India had signed MoUs and cooperation agreements with 23 countries to exchange and adopt Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) platforms under the India Stack initiative, including digital identity, payments, data exchange, and service delivery. Seychelles joined this group with the UPI MoU signed on 28 June.
Sri Lanka is implementing UPI and DigiLocker with support from Indian technical experts. Trinidad and Tobago is the first Caribbean nation to adopt UPI, while Guyana has agreed to introduce a similar system. Kenya is the first African country to adopt a DigiLocker framework.
The MoU does not specify which Seychellois banks or payment service providers will participate, the merchant rollout plan, or the timeline for QR code availability. These details will be finalised during the technical integration between NIPL and the Central Bank of Seychelles.
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