Telenor Announces Bill & Melinda Gates Grant for Easypaisa

easypaisaTelenor Pakistan yesterday officially announced that Easypaisa has got a $ 6.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to increase adoption of its mobile financial services.

To announce the grant, a press conference was held at Telenor Pakistan’s head office.

In his opening remarks, Roar Bjaerum, Vice President of Financial Services at Telenor Pakistan, said that accessible mobile financial services can help catalyze Pakistan’s socio-economic efforts.

“Financial exclusion of the lower income population is a systemic challenge in Pakistan. With more than 85% of population not having access to formal savings or credit products, many households are vulnerable to fluctuations in daily income and unable to absorb economic shocks from unexpected events.

Easypaisa’s vision is to serve as a vehicle for financial inclusion for such households. The grant will help us accelerate adoption of Easypaisa services among poor and unbanked individuals,” he said.

Rodger Voorhies, Director of the Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor initiative, in a message said that the aim of the project was to expand the range of services poor Pakistanis can access through Easypaisa:

“While Easypaisa has seen rapid adoption of its payment and remittance services, adoption of mobile financial services, like savings and insurance, has been slower,” Voorhies said. “This grant aims to accelerate adoption of Easypaisa’s Mobile Account among poor and unbanked households to create a foundation for the delivery of savings, insurance, and other mobile financial services.”

Telenor Pakistan’s Roar Bjaerum also spoke about Easypaisa services and the socio-economic impact and future of mobile financial services in Pakistan.


    • Becoz the grant will be used in the rural and lower socio economic areas for building up a financial service base where otherwise the company may not be interested to invest

    • these grant will be used in secret operation .now this is no more secret that norway’s secret agency working here in pakistan and this is the legal and safe way to provide this money to their agents ,and also this money will use to buy desi agents(pakistani).If you have any doubt search in google = secret norway agents in pakistan ,you will get all information.Complete investegation should be done, and there must be check and balance. JAGOO ISI ,JAGOO CHEIF JUSTICE, JAGOO POLITICIAN.

  • Yes, they are getting these grants because they are providing services in hard to reach areas, and are providing ease of use as well as fast & secure money transers to neglected segmetns of society. They are helping to develop the rural economy.

  • So It seems I was missing a lot…:-)

    I sincerely hope grant is used for its intended purpose and decisions while using grant are not based on ROI.

  • A very humble “thank you” to Bill & Melinda Gates for thinking something about Pakistanis who gave nothing in returned but hatred and suicide bombers. We, the Pakistanis, really hate USA. I don’t hate Americans but trust me, about 80%+ Pakistanis doesn’t have good sentiments towards Americans. I won’t go further in that discussion but would love to debate if ProPak allows it.

    On the other hand, alas, those $6.5 million dollars will go into bonuses for executives (in other words, pockets of executives). Corruption is everywhere in Pakistan. The EasyPaisa is a very cumbersome procedure and not-easy-to-use what one might think. I heard that it is not easy to transfer money over mobile because of terrorists organizations in Pakistan might utilize it. Once again, we are defeated by terrorists.


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