Secret Fund Used to Establish Easypaisa gets Unveiled

easypaisaIt was recently unveiled that Telenor has secretly used British funds to establish it’s financial services solution called easypaisa.

This was accidently revealed by Andrew Mitchell, British Secretary of State for Department of International Development (DFID) while responding to media persons in Karachi; he had said, “UK supported the mobile banking with initial seed money”

Telenor used this fund to build the capacity of easypaisa and it came through State Bank of Pakistan. Here is what Telenor exactly replied to one of our question in an email:

UKAid’s contribution towards the branchless banking industry in Pakistan came through a disbursal to State Bank of Pakistan. In turn, Tameer Microfinance Bank received a grant for finanial inclusion from State Bank of Pakistan last year.

However, none of the involving parties, including Telenor, Tameer Bank or the British government ever announced the existence or the utilization of this fund.

And this is exactly why the British opposition was taken by a shock when the news of funds worth millions of pounds emerged after one year of it’s issuance.

Telenor on other hands, neither disclosed this information nor provided any subsidy/discount to end users for service usage against the funds it took from the British government.

Telenor in its communication with ProPakistani accepted that Rs. 82 million from British aid were used for branchless banking capacity building. In addition, Tameer Bank received Rs. 20 million for enhancement of treasury and payment gateway for home remittances.

It merits mentioning here that Telenor is making significant amount of revenues from it’s easypaisa services, while on other hands, despite of foreign aid, Easypaisa’s transactional charges are amongst the highest in all kind of money processing charges, locally and globally.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • previously they also received a grant from bill and melinda gates foundation. wow, quite a business telenor has got here… expanding business through grants and then making huge profits on it!

  • shame on Telenor, providing such an expensive service even getting paid by others. Aamir you didn’t mentioned 82 milliom and 20 million are in rupees or British pound???

    • en key ads deak lo tu lagta hai en say bara koi Pakistan ka chah=nay wala hai hi nehi. yeh jo djuice key ads hain ye be _______ fund ker rha hoga ..

      [Comment Edited]

  • Thanx amir for doing reach and goes in its dept.
    is it a same story countinuation which i posted yesterday? In a form of link right?

    • Yes it’s derived from the same link that you had dropped, though I was notified about it earlier too

  • main sab se sirf itni hi ilteja kar sakta hoon agar kisi ko pakistan aur Islam se pyar hai tu wo plz telenor use na karein.telenor k ads se nojawan nasal begar rahi hai.

    • bilkul sahi,

      on one side they were promoting Phondhi in their ads after then started society mein justice.

      what the Fc_uk telenor is projecting.

  • Its very Ture,Mein nay Apna Telenor no. port in ker liya tha 2 year back Because i know Telenor is Anti pak

    • They offer a service in Pakistan and you say they are anti-Pakistan?

      Have you forgotten the days of Rs 3.50/minute calls to mobiles? From both Mobilink and Ufone? Who was anti-Pakistan then?

      • oh shahid saleem yahan bhi agai jin k fovurites hain facebook,p**n, and telenor lol. wasey ab is post pe pappu ko bhi ana chaiye, shahid saleem ko sabak sekhaney k liye ,wahi shahid saleem ko sabak sikha sakta hai. lol

      • Saleem mian it was competition that brought rates down, it wasn’t sympathy of Telenor for people of Pakistan that brought rates down.
        When you can send send money free of cost using online, ATM machines to other account holders then only those having no such facility or illetrate shouldn’t be ripped off by Telenor.
        Did anyone notice that we have much cheaper solution Pakistan Post available for that, only “instant” is what is a plus in telenor. 2nd UBL and even ABL I guess offer such a solution at cheaper rate.

        • — Saleem mian it was competition that brought rates down, it wasn’t sympathy of Telenor for people of Pakistan that brought rates down.

          Exactly my point. as more companies entered the market, the price war started. When Telenor has competition, the rates will go down. Right now for “instant” branchless banking, there is no one really like Telenor. UBL Orion was first (I think) but they could not manage the marketing aspect. I even tried to get my neighborhood store to use it but they didn’t. Maybe because they did not like association with Bank. Whereas with easy paisa, they have joined.

          But compare situations: why call Telenor anti-Pakistan for their high rates when no one called Mobilink and Ufone anti Pakistan? Does that make sense to you?

    • sirf anti-pak nahi anti-islam bhi hai, is k ads dekh lo kitnay behooda aur fahash hotey hain.

      • fahas in k adds nahi hum log khud hian na k koi aur cuz un adds maya hamari maa behenain kaam kertien hain aur na app wo adds dekhtey ager and besdies this aur b bohut kuch ho raha hai jo telenor nahi ker raha na hi wo involve hai . amd dont be a Hypocrite and dont bring Islam into this. apni soch bari kero and positive socho and get a life dude.

        • Telenor nay aisa kia kar dia hay jo aap log usayanti Islam keh rahay hain.
          Hamain apni soch ko expand karan paray ga. Hamain apni khamian nazar nahi aati hain aur har kisi ko hum asani say blame kar detay hain…

          • sohaib and monis ,aap dono ney is post k topic per comment nahi kiya balkay :@ munnu ko jawab dey diya .. wah ,is se pata chalta hai aap dono telenor k employee ho.wasey telenor doosrey number pe hai pakistan main phir bhi secret funds :OOO .mujey tu daal main kuch kala lagta hai.Government ko investigation karni chaiye is ki .

            • yes ofcourse,

              zardari investigation services.
              aur phir zardari telenor say paisay ley kar khaiga, aur kahayga yeh to easy paisa hai is mein to koi problem nahin, let the journey begins.

              phir sub khamosh ho jaingay, __________ ke tarhan.

              [Comment Edited]

  • indeed a shameful and anti-competitive act by telenor. it is a public limited firm, it should have made this information public

    • How can it be anti-competitive? The other companies offering similar products can apply for grants too. And where is the shame in getting funding to start operations?

      Tell me, suppose there are two companies offering a certain service and one gets funding from PASHA fund, is it suddenly anti-competitive behavior? It’s a fund! You meet criteria, you get money.

      Also, in Pakistan, it is not public limited company, it is private.

      • they should have kept easypaisa service free for say 2 years if they wanted to translate these funds to the end user.

        what a common man is going to benifit out of the fund?

        • A fund does not necessarily means FREE MONEY. They need to run their infrastructure.

  • are you kidding me? telenor got 102 million rs as grant from british government – man,

    so if a group like telenor is operating on charity money then who else doesn’t deserve it?

  • SCB SAY FREE BILKUL FREE HAY PER DAY 2500000 to any 1link supportered Bank via internet and ATM

    • Different case. easy paisa is for people who dont have bank accounts.

  • usually there is no free lunch..what could be the costs behind this 102m

    • Analyzing the strength of some countries economy and to get a share from it. this is a phenomena that is basically adopted by jews.

      and i am sure this fund must be funded by Israel.

        • ye funds aik tarah ki rishwat hoti hai ,jis tarah IMF funds sharait laga kar deta hai maslan budget wo banata hai ,bijli mehngi karney ko wo boltah hai ,taxes laganey ko boltah ai.Aik tarah se jo fund deta hai wo apney kaam nikaalta hai.is hi tarah mujey lagtah hai ye funds Pakistan main telenor k zariye “Fahashi aur uryani” phelanay k liye diye gai hain jis ki misaal telenor ka flurt promotion wala ad hai.

  • I got only one question. Why it was not declared by Telenor? Is it something which was not supposed to be made public?

    • That is the difference betweeen a public limited company and a private limited company under the law. A private company does not need to declare this to the public.

      On the other hand, government funding should be public. That is why this is known to all because government of UK helped fund the project.

      • what private limited? Telenor Pakistan is fully owned by a public limited company, its all transactions are supposed to be made public…

        kiss dunya main rehtay ho bahi

        • It does not matter if it is 100% owned by a public limited company. It is still a Private company and does not have to disclose these things to anyone but State Bank, etc.

          Example: Ufone is Pvt even though it is 100% owned by PTC (public). Ufone’s internal financials are unavailable to you. If you read PTCL’s publicly disclosed financial data (annual or quarterly reports) you will not see anything about Ufone.

          • shahid saleem pappu na ajai is post pe ,chup jao us k aney se phelay jaldi se. lol

    • ha ha ha Mr. Why are you joking?

      if zardari donates his property for flood victums would you again question him why you donates you are a perasite you can’t donate.

      so question is not who donated question is why did they use the british fund for making business.

      fund is an injection to body or country to stand on feet.

      if someone give your the Aid or fund he is not 100% for your support their must be some reason behind that.

  • Due to such kind of act and always involved in the controversy, i am not using Telenor from many years.. they cannot change and they will also continue to make us (Pakistani) fool. Kabhi kuch aur phir Kabhi kuch….hahaha

  • What you forgot to mention here is that mirco finance banking everywhere in the third world is dependent on funds and grants. All these funds and grants are given through the national financial institution which in this case would be the State Bank of Pakistan.

    Try Bangladesh or India for example. They have had the most successful of mircofinance campaigns and both have been funded by the government. Where these funds come from is the least of the financial institutions worries. So I believe this article is baseless in terms of any hype or accusation its trying to make. Any financial instution going to massive mircofinancing would be based on funds or grants.

    • yes microfinance is funded by organizations but they market it same way – telling that how much and which way they were funded, telenor thought they can fool the nation so easily

      • And what difference would it have made to anyone of you if they had declared it? A fund is a fund whether declared or not it will be used for whatever purpose it was meant for.

        Additionally, the sole fact that this service was launched was proof enough that it was totally backed by the government of your country.

  • what if zardari donates his property for flood victums would you again question him why you donates you are a perasite you can’t donate.

    so question is not who donated question is why did they use the british fund for making business.

    fund is an injection to body or country to stand on feet.

    if someone give your the Aid or fund he is not 100% for your support their must be some reason behind that.

    • Like I said in my original comment, a country gets various funds from the world to carry out different projects. So it is very simple to understand that the institution in question here did not receive the funds directly but were granted the same by the state bank as they were working on the launch of services that the funds were intended for.

      And your conspiracy theories and baseless without any proof.

  • American aid par palne waley log shor macha rahey hein..Hypocrites…indeed shameful!

  • Dear ProPaki,

    Don’t forget that whole Pakistan is being funded by the donor agencies that include USAID, UKAID, WorldBank, AsianDevelopmentBank.

    Kidhar ki baatein kartey hein ?

    Go and see who is funding the development projects of Power Plants? Dams? etc

    Think Big Dost! situation of Pakistan is far worst and you are just acting as a cry baby!

    Self Evaluate ur self before pointing finger on others!

    • Hey, u are forgetting this thing Telenor or Pakistan is not same. so different situation here and first think and then write something. Telenor is belong to healthy country and financially very strong. why they need fund?

    • norway aur pakistan main thora tu farq choro yaar, waisay tu bara bantay ho norway walay, abb pakistani ban gaye, dual face

    • jheengayoist bhai baki fund thorda bohat to Pakistan ko faida deta hai, kia faida dia easy paisa nay fund ke badolat? double say bhi ziyada munafa kama lia telenor nay mehangi tareen banking service day ker.

      • @Sacha: Try google!! Search for affects of mircofinancing or advantages of microfinancing and also check out mobile banking. Just because you have not used the service does not mean it has not benefitted anyone in the country.

        You do not have to go far, as I said, just look at how mircrofinancing changed rural bangladesh and boosted their economy. It all happened over time and if you are looking for an instant result in Pakistan, that will not happen, especially with the current state of the economy.

    • live in the real world man, what u are comparing u even dont know….. :D

  • Ohh bhai ya donation hamara HAQ ha :p
    ham an ke war larahy han apnay ghar main..

    jis din Pakistan na larna bnd kya UK,USA ke **** hojye ge :p

  • Every day Pakistan feeds in the plate of global donors! It annoys people when they are not smart enough to get their share. No one sees the Chinese stealing our country bit by bit!

  • I wish yo migrate to ufone, but it is quite expensive + always have network issues!

  • Uffff so much said on a very simple and straight forward case.
    Does any one know who is Dr Muhammad Younas of Bangladesh.
    he is the one who introduced microfinancing in bangladesh and charged 20% interest rate higher than any bank in bangladesh. you know what the loan return rate was 95% which is a world record.
    His bank Grameen Bank was started with donation from UK, USA and from other institutes.
    But here problem is not the funding but seems problem is our mindset,,,,
    atleast Telenor brought foreign investment in your country created employment and enhanced the life style with minimum communication charges.
    but we will say Telenor is Anti Pakistan…..
    they donated more than any other pakistani company for flood relief
    but Telenor is anti pakistan……
    Telenor employees went to flood effected areas to save the lives of people but Telenor is anti Pakistan
    the built schools and homes but yes telenor is anti Pakistan

    we did not go anywhere to help our country men but we are by default Petriote

  • jab ghulami bharti jayai gi tu dunya ko paisai sai
    aur ziada control kia jayai ga..wo waqt door nahin jab koi bhi is sood ki lanat sai nahin bach sakai ga…phir socho kaun ayai ga aur kia ho ga..

  • People dont know what a convienence Easy Paisa Is. Darn it.. I pay my bills sitting on my couch… is that not convienence, If i need to send money to my Butler, I send it while sitting on my couch at my home.

    Off course convienece costs money, otherwise i would have been dragging my beind all the way to teh darn post office to send me money order ! ! !….

    People Grow up and Open your eyes, This is how business is done, If i can get a grant for 20% of my Project Cost, why not take it if i fulfill thr criteria for the requirement. There is no harm in that. And what is a 100 Million for a such mammoth project. Telenor is not a banker, Imagine the Risk it took to get into the Mobile banking business.

    IT IS A CONVIENENCE and CONVIENENCE COSTS MONEY…. Live with it.


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