Mobicash has become the first mobile financial services provider (MFS) to launch Near Field Communication (NFC) payments on vending machines for its mobile account users after signing an agreement with Batwa and Wavetec.
Through this collaboration, Mobicash users will be able to purchase items from Wavetec’s NFC enabled vending machines which are to be installed at various places around the country. As a pilot, this facility will be available at the Mobilink premises for employees. After a successful trial period, the facility will be available to Mobicash Mobile Account holders. This initiative is another step towards a secure and reliable cashless ecosystem in the near future.
To launch the NFC payments mechanism, a signing ceremony was held in Islamabad, attended by Ms. Aniqa Afzal Sandhu, Director Mobile Financial services – Mobilink, Adnan Asdar, Director – Batwa, Sajid Farooqi, CEO – Batwa, Ahmed Fraz, CEO – Wavetec, and Saim Ehtesham, HOD – Vendi.
Speaking about this first of its kind innovative offering, Aniqa Afzal Sandhu stated:
NFC based payment solutions open up a unique opportunity to enable our 1.5 million strong Mobicash mobile account user family to use NFC technology to pay for day to day transactions, starting with these NFC based vending machines. As a promoter of branchless banking in the country with a vision to bridge the prevalent divide between the banked and unbanked population, we believe rapid growth of NFC based payment solutions is for the benefit of a cashless ecosystem. The next step in this cashless ecosystem revolution is the launch of our NFC enabled retail payment solutions across Pakistan. We would like to thank Batwa and Wavetec for jointly assisting us in the development of an efficient and customized solution for our customers.
Adding his thoughts on the need for more NFC based payment solutions, Ahmed Fraz said:
Pakistan has great potential for a NFC based payment ecosystem, especially since MFS accounts for a great amount of financial activity amongst the large unbanked population. Such solutions will offer greater benefits to the consumers, retailers and cashless banking sector in the country.
Adnan Asdar further added:
I would like to congratulate the entire Mobilink, Wavetec, Vendi and Batwa teams on successfully collaborating to launch this project; a big step towards creating a cash lite eco-system. Â Its success will emphasize the importance of an agnostic infrastructure for accelerating financial inclusion and bringing down the cost of doing business for all stakeholders.
To use this innovative payment solution, Mobicash users will input their mobile number to acquire an NFC tag, payment for which will be deducted from their mobile account, and will then place this tag on the Vendi’s  NFC reader to link their Mobicash mobile account to their NFC tag.  Upon selection of an item from Vendi, the user will enter his/her MPIN on their phone to complete the transaction.
Well funny how propakistani first reported easy paisa nfc solutions way back ;)
That was a test, and reported in the same manner. This is a commercial rollout.
This is a trial (a cold test).
EasyPaisa was the first one to launch it.
by the way this launch could have been done 6 to 8 months back by Mobilink/Mobicash but it is due to the stupid “Copier” business (corporate) team that this has delayed till today.
Not really a commercial roll out if its only in Mobilink offices. This is nothing more than a gimmick… for both easypaisa and mobicash…
NFC? Sounds good….
Easypaisa has been piloting NFC in F11 islamabad for past few months already. All places like gloria jeans, coffee planet, rahat, d watson are using it.
still mobicash is the first one because propakistani had to earn money to paste this news at their website.
Well to be honest… Telenor did it first, but never highlighted that they were offering the payments in F11 Markaz. BTW, the retailers in F-11 Markaz refuse to accept payments via NFC… something TP needs to sort out…
arnt they late as most of pakistanis have already destroyed their nfc chip lol
That irony lol !!! xD
This is a gimmicky product with the sole purpose of creating news & hype, and is not any different than Google coming out with Google Glass — a lot of press, very little by way of application, and no revenue. Mobilink needs to focus on generating revenue from P2P transactions as this is where the growth is, but appears to be lost. Bilal Sheikh was brought in to get Mobicash back on track, but couldn’t and is now gone. I fully suspect that Aamir Ibrahim will clean house at Mobicash by bringing guys from Easypaisa to inject some life into it.
Pakistan is about creating hype. Remember the time when everyone was doing MBA and then everyone was doing IT. It is true for most countries. The question is who will succeed in creating thia hype first? Telenor or Mobilink. The one who does will make money. Remember the prices are usually high for vendeing machines items…. so only hype. I agree with your comment about Amir…. BS was dinosaur.
with reference to the Dota-2 winner guy. almost all urban parents will now hire a tutor for playing dota-2 as well for their children ;-)
BMS was not pulled in to get Mobicash back on track. He was sidelined to Mobicash and removed from CCO position so he got a graceful exit from Mobilink. He still couldnt manage doing that and ended up having to leave with out any where to go…
I agree that BS was sidelined for the sake of a graceful exit and rumor has it that he is on his way to Africa. Mobicash needs a strategy as its brand & P2P service is grossly underperforming at the moment. More shakeup is coming as Aamir Ibrahim is in the process of bringing his buddies to Mobilink as rumored about return of Khalid Shehzad from DTEC as its CTO.
Thats not a rumor… he’s already here…
@ Abid Sahi & Asif (batwa)
looking great guys ;-)
Congratulations.
Telenor easy paisa is first in Pakistan to offer NFC payment solution, pls correct your post
Why is the guy standing behind the guy on the right in the blue shirt biting his lip??? :S
eyes closed due to flash but lips are closed due to frustration / anger …
Or maybe he just has a dirty thought/picture in his mind… :P
“first of its kind” :)
All these products and services…how much do people know about them…how many are aware of these innovations…lets hope the telecoms can encourage and persuade customers to become part of a strong digital eco system and in return save valuable time and money for people looking for an alternative besides the conventional retail banking system. Does not matter who is 1st or 2nd…what does matter is healthy competition in which customer should always be the winner !!
How secure is this solution? If it’s a passive tag, the information from the tag should be readable by most NFC readers. Or are these tags and readers EMV-compliant? Nice initiative, nonetheless.
yea, Easypay was the first 1, people haven’t seen the NFC zone in F11 islamabad i guess.
Testing a vending machine and posting on media about vending machine accepting mobile payments doesnt make mobicash the first one.
Easypaisa has a growning number in karachi lahore and especially islamabad.
There still is no acceptance of mobicash where as f11 is excepting easy paisa at groceries, restaurants, toy stores…… where is mobi cash’es acceptance?
Easypaisa has physical and ground existence apart from real time acceptance and a huge number of active merchants. What does Mobicash have? Nothing