Vodafone Fiji Limited has become one of a handful of companies around the world to offer a mobile   money transfer service.

Vodafone has started pilot testing its M-PAiSA Mobile Money Transfer Service and becomes the first company in the Pacific, ahead of Australia and New Zealand to introduce a payment service that enables customers to complete simple financial transactions over a mobile phone.

Manager Corporate Affairs and Product Manager Shailendra Prasad said the M-PAiSA service offers many services similar to a bank and registered Vodafone users will be able to deposit and withdraw cash with approved agents in Fiji, send money directly to others mobile phones, buy recharge and airtime and also receive money from overseas directly to their mobile phones.
 
The project received financial and technical support from the Pacific Financial Inclusion Program and Technical Advisor Tillman Bruett said this is an important step in bringing access to safe and affordable financial services to the estimated 50 percent of Fijian households that are unbanked.

He said in Fiji, because of the geographic spread and lack of economies of scale, providing banking and financial services to the rural sector has always been a challenge.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Fiji has been studying other systems and regulatory approaches and has worked with Vodafone to ensure the new system is safe and affordable and meets international standards related to money laundering and the financing of terrorism.