Pakistan’s Tameer Microfinance Bank and European telcom giant Telenor came together to create EasyPaisa, a mobile based branchless service that puts the bank in your pocket. From its inception in 2009, EasyPaisa has made great inroad into length and breadth of Pakistan covering more than 800 cities, towns, and villages with over six million users monthly. In a developing economy where mobile penetration at nearly 70% is far higher than banking with only 15% of the population with bank accounts, EasyPaisa provides means to bridge the gap by providing financial access for people.
The first of its kind service in Pakistan is hugely popular in both urban as well as rural areas, mainly due to its simplicity and ease of use. Anyone with a mobile phone in their pocket can now access banking services like Mobile Bill Payments, Money Transfer, and Mobile Bank accounts among others. This has made life especially better for those living in far remote parts of the country receiving money from their family working in bigger cities. EasyPaisa has over 65000 outlets across the country and continues to expand its network every month.
Wall Street Journal’s Financial Inclusion Challenge invited a short video pitch from enterprises (both profit and non-profit) across the globe to propose solutions for problem of financial access for the underprivileged. The focus of the contest is to address the difficulties affecting individuals’ ability to join and stay in the financial mainstream in the Asia-Pacific region.
The entries were divided into three main categories technology; education; and operational effectiveness and judged by an independent panel of judges on whether the solutions provided made a meaningful impact. EasyPaisa has made it to the final of the challenge with other five entries from across the globe. A winner will be decided by the panel of judges in each of the three categories along with an overall challenge winner and a People’s choice winner. The voting for people’s choice winner is open till the 26th June.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2u0qtt
EasyPaisa has paved way financial empowerment, education and created means to increase financial inclusion in the society. The mobile saving alone will increase the overall country’s GDP by 3% by year 2020. World Bank pegs it as the third biggest mobile money service globally in terms of client base. It’s a remarkable achievement but instead of resting on its laurels, EasyPaisa continues to innovate to make further inroads into the cross section of the economy.
In 2013, it introduced mobile savings service, Khushaal Munafa with returns as high as 9% on their mobile savings accounts. It even includes a Life and Accidental Insurance called Khushaal Beema of Rs. 1 Million just by maintaining a balance of Rs.2000.
EasyPaisa signed up with Sindh Education Reform Program to help the government disburse educational stipend to students in the rural provinces of Sindh. This arrangement has helped the government provide financial assistance for education to more than 400,000 girls.
EasyPaisa has easily been one of the most popular services which have been successful due to its philosophy of innovation and inclusive growth. It’s made the finals justifiably so. You can do your bit by voting for it, if their philosophy resonates with you.
