Vodafone’s M-Pesa to allow users to pay electricity bills in Mumbai

NEW DELHI:Vodafone's digital wallet service, Vodafone M-Pesa has partnered with BEST Undertaking, Reliance Energy and Tata Power to pay their electricity bills while using its wallet service.

Vodafone m-Pesa offers customers a cashless, secure and easy way for electricity bill payments with the largest network of agents (or CashIn Points) to enable digitization of money for the Cash holding population.

Vodafone India has more than 87 lakh subscribers in Mumbai who will be able to pay electricity bill through M-Pesa assisted by more than 4000+ outlets (or CashIn Points) including Vodafone Company owned stores, franchisees, and multi brand outlets.

These CashIn Points provide convenience and ease to Customers to convert cash into digital money to participate in digital payment of Bills and e-commerce /m-Commerce. The bill payment touch points are easily available at every nook and corner, including 56 Vodafone brand stores.

Ishmeet Singh, Business Head, Mumbai Circle - Vodafone India said “It has been our constant endeavor to deliver and bring world class service experiences to our customers in Mumbai. This facility is one such initiative which will fulfill the need for a simple, timely and cashless payments solution to the consumers through their mobile phones”.

Customers across various segments can access M-Pesa on either a smart phone by downloading the M-Pesa App or by dialing a USSD short-code from any phone including any feature phone. This facility is aimed at driving financial inclusion further along with providing Mumbaikars the benefit and comfort of making payments instantly. As an added benefit, new users of M-Pesa can earn 5% cashback on the payment made through the App (cashback of maximum Rs.50 each month for a period of 3 months).

Suresh Sethi, Business Head, M-Pesa, Vodafone India said “We are delighted to facilitate payments via M-Pesa (mobile wallet), safe, fast and convenient way of bringing bank to the mobile. With this facility, customers now have an access to multiple touch points for electricity bill payments in a simple and hassle free manner. >From process automation to instant and secure transaction, we are confident M-Pesa will bring transformational benefits to the people in Mumbai and further drive financial inclusion in the state.”

Serving the needs of the unbanked and under-banked customers, Vodafone M-Pesa is a safe, fast and convenient way of bringing bank to the mobile. Also, with a pan India distribution network of over 120,000 CashIn Points and with more than 5 million customers, Vodafone M-Pesa is the largest banking business correspondent in the country. M-Pesa today plays a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce. 'M-Pesa’ effectively leverages the combined strengths of Vodafone’s global expertise in the domain of mobile payments and significant distribution reach in India plus the security of financial transactions provided by ICICI Bank.