Soaring demand for mobile operator Telenor Pakistan’s banking unit will see it represent 10% of the group’s local business within five years, says financial services VP Roar Bjaerum.
It is understood that last month just over one million customers used…
Soaring demand for mobile operator Telenor Pakistan’s banking unit will see it represent 10% of the group’s local business within five years, says financial services VP Roar Bjaerum.
It is understood that last month just over one million customers used easypaisa, the company’s financial services division, underlining significant growth since the unit’s launch in July 2009.
Bjaerum declined to comment on customer numbers, saying only that the company processed 1.5 million transactions last month.
He added that the Telenor Pakistan was confident of further growth after seeing rocketing demand for mobile bill payments and money transfers in the country.
“We have an ambition to achieve 10% of revenues, or 7-9 million customers a month, from banking services five years down the line,” he said.
According to Bjaerum, only a tenth of Pakistan’s population are “banked”, leaving almost 35% subject to “informal services”, including loan sharks.
After legislation in April 2008 provided regulatory clarity for mobile banking, Telenor Pakistan teamed up with Tameer Bank to launch easypaisa to address these issues.
However, mobile banking is a long-term investment, added Bjaerum, pointing to significant upfront costs for factors such as marketing to “train” potential customers to use the services.
Other investments include constructing the service’s technical platform and building its network of agents.
Telenor Pakistan posted total revenues of NOK 1.17bn (US$204m) for 4Q 2010, compared with NOK 1.06bn (US$184m) for the corresponding period in 2009. Q4 2010 EBITDA was also up to NOK 328m (US$57m), compared with NOK 309m (US$54m) the previous year.
