Vodafone looks to promote its M-Pesa service in Goa navhindtimes.in/?p=56920PANAJI: The customers of Vodafone telecommunication company are now actually able to ‘Dial M for Money’, and use the company’s M-Pesa platform for actually paying their power and DTH service bills, and transferring money to themselves as well as others. Informing about this unique tool linked to the Vodafone service, Ishmeet Singh, business head of the Maharashtra and Goa Circle, said that M-Pesa was launched in Goa in October last year, and since then around 450 M-Pesa agents have been appointed in the state, 39 per cent of whom are attached to the rural area. He also added that during these eight months, the category-wise share of the particular Vodafone utility tool has been 40 per cent towards bill payments, 25 per cent towards post paid service, 20 per cent towards money transfer, and 15 per cent towards pre-paid recharge. Once the Vodafone customer signs up for the service and creates an account, he can use it for a host of services like deposits, send and receive money, pay mobile and utility bills, besides shopping online and even withdrawal of money. The most important use of such wallets is to send money to people who do not have a bank account. One can register for these services either online or through an M-Pesa agent. Once registered, the money is deposited electronically or through the M-Pesa agents. One is then assigned an account, loaded with the amount deposited, and through this account can undertake transactions up to the value of the loaded amount. There are, however, monthly limits on the amount which can be loaded and transacted, like say maximum top up amount allowed up to Rs 10,000. As per the Reserve Bank of India rules, Rs 5,000 is the maximum amount that can be transacted in a day, while not more than 25,000 can be transferred in a month in a given user ID. “However, if a person wants to hike the transaction amount for say, payment of commercial power bills, then he can get a related license from the concerned government authority,” Singh informed, adding that no other telecommunication company has such a unique cash out tool, although some of them are providing facility of money transfer to the bank. He also noted that M-Pesa works on any cell phone instrument without the use internet connection, GPRS or a smart phone to access one’s account, with the Pinword acting as the security. “Our effort is to bring the bank closer to people, especially for unbanked and under-banked sections,” Singh stated, pointing out that the company is also exploring possibilities of linking this tool to money transfer pertaining to various government schemes in Goa. Incidentally, M-Pesa has signed up pilot projects to handle government-to-public transactions in states like Orissa and Jharkhand. Goa is a key market for Vodafone due to its touristic importance, and the company wants to popularise the M-pesa facility here, which is already an important component of economic activities in ten countries including South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Tanzania.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 20:04:20 +0000
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