Mobile operator Digicel Pacific Limited has announced the deployment of VeriFone’s mWallet services and NFC-enabled payment systems in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Starting this week, Digicel subscribers in the the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa will be able to receive NFC tags that are linked to their mobile phone numbers and VeriFone’s contactless payment acceptance systems. Customers can affix these tags to their phones to tap and pay at over 50 merchants in Nuku’alofa.

According to Digicel, the new service complements the operator’s recent International Money Transfers deployment, which lets users send money directly to each others’ mobile phones at a much lower cost than banks and other traditional operators.

Together, these services aim to help the many Tongans who are unbanked and do not have access to NFC-enabled smart phones.

Following the initial launch in Nuku’alofa, Digicel and VeriFone plan to expand the system throughout the entire region, with hundreds of contactless VeriFone payment systems slated for installation in the coming months.

Digicel says it will also add an International Bill Payments feature as well as other new services over the next few weeks.