State-backed telco Myanma Post and Telecommunications (MPT), plans to launch its own mobile money services this year which would put it in direct competition with Telenor’s Wave Money, and Ooredoo, who are soon to unveil their own mobile money service, in the country’s fledgling mobile financial services sector, the head of MPT Mobile Money has said.
“We plan to launch MPT Mobile Money this year. The widespread use of mobile financial services will have a positive impact on the economic development of Myanmar,” Rozano Plato, head of MPT Mobile Money, told the audience at the 8th Annual Mobile Money and Agent Banking Seminar in Yangon.
Amid Myanmar’s largely unbanked population, a rising middle class and mobile sim penetration fast approaching 90 percent, the mobile money industry is seen as major growth sector.
The government has set an ambitious target of getting 40 percent of the population access to financial services by the year 2020, and with every new entrant into the nascent sector, particularly by the major telcos, this appears within reach.
Norwegian-backed Telenor was the first telco to enter the mobile money sector with Wave Money, which since it began operations in August 2016 has amassed over 250,000 users. Wave Money CEO, Brad Jones, told Myanmar Business Today in a recent interview that the increased competition could only benefit Myanmar consumers and the industry.
“When the other operators come in, I think we’ll see the overall sector increase because there’ll be two or three other operators all educating the market,” said Jones, adding, “The biggest competitor we have right now in Myanmar is cash.”
Another major telco, Qatar-backed Ooredoo has plans to launch its own mobile money services “very soon”, Rene Meza, Ooredoo Myanmar CEO, told Myanmar Business Today.
“Regardless of where you are on the financial pyramid, the top or the bottom, people need access to basic financial services,” he said.
Source: Myanmar Business Today
