Feb 27 (Reuters) – Afghan telecoms operator Roshan has teamed up with Western Union Co to enable subscribers to receive remittances from abroad on their mobile phones, a joint statement said.
About 1.2 million of Roshan’s 5.8 million mobile subscribers are already registered with its mobile payment portal, M-Paisa, which was developed by Vodafone.
Roshan – 51 percent owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, 36.75 percent by Cable & Wireless Communications Plc and 12.25 percent by Swedish group TeliaSonera – estimates about 97 percent on Afghanistan’s population do not have access to traditional financial services.
M-Paisa is a virtual bank account embedded into a SIM card that is accessed via a password and many users now receive their salary via SMS.
“It’s like an ATM card,” Altaf Ladak, Roshan chief operating officer, told Reuters.
“A lot of people, such as policemen, may be working in one area, but their family is somewhere else. Now they can transfer their money directly.
via Western Union, Afghan Roshan eye mobile money transfer | Reuters.
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