The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph and Company (GT&T) is partnering with Indian mobile solutions giant Mahindra Comviva to bring the “mobile money or mWallet” services here.
Today, as the GT&T’s band takes to the road to participate in Mashramani festivities, reports say their frolickers will use the opportunity to edify the public about how they will be able to use their phones for a wide range of financial services, including paying bills and transferring cash, hence eliminating walking around with cash on their person. “Guyana Telephone & Telegraph (GT&T) has joined hands with Mahindra Comviva to provide mobile financial services. With Mahindra Comviva’s technology mobiquity mobile financial solution, GT&T will be able to offer mWallet services in Guyana. This will allow mobile subscribers to conduct a variety of transactions over the mobile, which include domestic and international P2P money transfer, prepaid top-up, utility bill payments and over the counter merchant payments,” a report on the business website insightvas.com stated.
The Managing Director of GT&T’s Mobile Money, Eshwar Thakurdin, last evening confirmed the partnership but remained tight-lipped on details, saying the company will issue a statement soon.
He was quoted by the website as saying at the signing of the agreement “Mahindra Comviva’s mobiquity mobile financial solution brings great value to our customers in terms of its ease of access, as they will be able to top-up their prepaid account, buy goods, make their bill payments with their mobile phones. The new mWallet services will increase consumers’ brand engagement by delivering interactive, immersive and individualized shopping experience. Further domestic and international transfers can easily be carried out, which will promote financial inclusion in the country.” Max Padro, Vice President, Latin America and Caribbean, Mahindra Comviva, said in the statement on the website, “We are excited about our partnership with GT&T in Guyana and to bring easy-to-use and affordable financial payment services to the mobile subscribers in the region.”
GT&T’s acting Chief Financial Officer Sonita Jagan had told a press conference held at Cara Lodge on January 17 this year that the company was excited to bring to Guyanese a service that is already used in many countries around the globe.
Jagan had explained that the new system is expected to be implemented before April and agreements have already been made with utility companies GPL and GWI as well as IPED for mobile money payments. The bank will also use the services of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry as its cash facilitator.
Explaining how the system will work and its similarity to that of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, Jagan said “You got the technology now on the phone itself where your phone actually becomes your wallet. So, it’s not only about having your phone with credit, as we like to say in Guyana, it’s now where you can have cash. You can go to any of our agents and you can actually deposit cash in your phones.” She described how the service will come in handy for persons in the hinterland who have difficulty getting money to their families on the coastland. “One of the big things is that you can actually do local money transfers and this is how it started because you had people working in the urban areas wanting to send money to their families in the rural areas. I think in Guyana’s case it will be [the] opposite, where people in the gold mining areas will want to send money to the urban areas,” she said.
“You can go and I guess change an ounce of gold with the person in Mahdia and put the money on your phone and just send that money to the phone number of your family,” she explained.
Jagan underscored the importance of having a vigilant security system in place, saying that the subscriber would have the same protection as with an ATM card, with the set up of a PIN and other personal security information. If the phone is lost or stolen, owners can also call into GT&T to lock the number.
