Telecom major Vodafone India and ICICI Bank on Friday announced the launch of ‘M-Pesa’, a mobile money transfer and payment service, in Odisha.
‘M-Pesa’ service was formally launched by senior officials from Vodafone India including BJAS Murthy, Operations Director – East, Abdhesh Kumar Singh, Business Head – Odisha and Suresh Sethi, Business Head – M-Pesa.
M-Pesa empowers the unbanked and under-banked sections of the population gain access to financial services through the mobile phone.
Abdhesh Kumar Singh said said, “Today, less than 5 percent of villages in India have a banking outlet. Financial inclusion is a national priority and we believe that with ‘M-Pesa’, we now have the ideal offering to facilitate the same across the country in compliance with all applicable regulations.”
It effectively leverages the combined strengths of Vodafone’s global expertise in the domain of mobile payments and significant distribution reach in India plus security of financial transactions provided by ICICI Bank, he said.
This service will now be available across 202 ‘tehsils’, 24 districts through 1350 specially trained authorised agents including 73 Vodafone exclusive stores in Odisha.
Apart from Odisha, ‘M-Pesa’ has been rolled out in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, West Bengal, Punjab, UP East, UP West, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Assam & North East and Haryana and will be made available across the country in a phased manner.
source:NDTV
