NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Etisalat joined Dialog’s eZ Cash mobile money platform on Monday, enabling a combined subscriber base of 12.7 million —over 60% of the country’s population— to enjoy ‘seamless and convenient mobile money services’ that lets them deposit, send or receive money and pay utility bills, insurance premia and engage in other transactions.

Dialog’s eZ Cash had handled Rs. 6 billion worth transactions last year and is averaging Rs. 700 million per month. The groundbreaking tie-up brings a potential combined subscriber base of 12.7 million or 60% of the country’s population under one e-commerce umbrella, a move supported and hailed by the Central Bank and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL).

“Globally we haven’t seen such a cooperation to date as everyone competes. Dialog and Etisalat have set an example to the world by putting competition secondary and fostering financial inclusion as primary. This is lacking on a global scale,” the industry’s international group GSM Association’s Mobile Money Expert Gerald Rasugu said at the event held at the Taj Samudra on Monday.