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Vodafone India expects its M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer and payment service, to be an alternative to a credit or debit card for making payments.
“We are talking to a number of retailers to use our M-Pesa digital cash in transactions,” Suresh Sethi, Business Head of M-Pesa, told newspersons.
Since the launch of M-Pesa jointly with ICICI Bank in April, nearly one million consumers use the service that was started keeping in mind the 700 million people who do not have access to conventional banking. M-Pesa empowers this section of the population gain access to financial services through mobile phone, he said.
M-Pesa is currently used mainly to make payments to recharge mobile, clear utility bills and for DTH service subscription. However, it will become a major mode of payment as the concept picks up, Sethi said at the launch of the service in Tamil Nadu.
Today less than 5 per cent of villages have a banking outlet. Financial inclusion is a national priority, and “we believe that M-Pesa facilitates the same in compliance with all applicable regulations,” he said.
According to Apoorva Mehrotra, Business Head, Tamil Nadu and Chennai, Vodafone India, the company will target students, high tech and automobile hub and medical tourism hotspots for M-Pesa.
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