Mobile Money promotes cashless payments in rural areas

Running a small business in a mountainous district of Lai Chau province, Ms. Nguyen Thi My does not have a bank account or a smartphone. Every month, she has to transfer money to send her child to school in Hanoi, so Ms. My registered to use the Mobile Money service.

Thanks to that, she can transfer money and make payments conveniently on her mobile phone without having to go to the district to send money. She said that thanks to Mobile Money, she also reduced the use of cash payments.

Since Mobile Money was introduced, Mobile Money QR codes have appeared in remote areas, contributing to the popularization of digital finance. This is a positive sign, showing that people's cash usage habits have changed.

Mobile Money is a service that uses telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services, and will be piloted from November 2021, after the State Bank granted pilot licenses to the first three enterprises: VNPT, MobiFone and Viettel.

Mobile Money service allows customers to use their telecommunications accounts to perform various transactions such as: Payment for small-value goods and services, money transfer, direct deposit and withdrawal at stores and transaction points of network operators nationwide... without requiring a bank account, a smartphone, or an Internet connection.

small copy.jpg — Cashless payment in rural areas. (Photo: HN)

Viettel Digital Deputy General Director Truong Quang Viet said that Mobile Money has reached nearly 4 million subscribers, with the goal of reaching 5 million users by the end of 2023. The number of customers using Viettel's Mobile Money currently accounts for more than 70% of the total number of Mobile Money customers nationwide, of which 74% of users live in rural and remote areas.

The network operator representative said that the payment and transaction fields using Mobile Money not only focus on money transfer and payment of essential services but also add many shopping and entertainment utilities, serving daily needs such as e-commerce, buying airline tickets, train tickets, insurance, etc.

According to VNPT, the total number of customers registering and using the Mobile Money service at VNPT Money reached nearly 1.8 million after nearly 2 years of pilot implementation. Of which, the number of customers registering and using the service in rural, mountainous, remote, border and island areas accounted for 71%, the number of Mobile Money business points reached nearly 3,500 points.

At this point, users with Mobile Money accounts can make direct money transfers to more than 100 million payment accounts opened at banks and vice versa. In addition, VNPT Money has successfully integrated the feature of transferring and receiving money from Mobile Money via VietQR codes of banks at the present time.

Promote cashless payments

According to the assessment, Mobile Money is not only a digital economic solution but also a digital social solution with great impacts, creating momentum for socio-economic development throughout Vietnam, from urban areas to mountainous areas and islands, helping people benefit from digital financial activities wherever they are.

Recently, the Government decided to extend the pilot implementation period of using telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services (Mobile Money) in Decision No. 316/QD-TTg dated March 9, 2021 of the Prime Minister on approving the pilot implementation of Mobile Money as follows: "Enterprises approved by the State Bank of Vietnam to pilot the use of telecommunications accounts to pay for small-value goods and services shall carry out the pilot until December 31, 2024".

The Government assigned the State Bank of Vietnam to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice and relevant agencies to review, research and report to competent authorities on the issuance of legal documents regulating Mobile Money services before May 2024.

Recently, the Ministry of Information and Communications has sent an Official Dispatch to the Prime Minister reporting on the summary of the implementation of the Mobile Money service pilot. At the same time, the Ministry of Information and Communications requested the Prime Minister to allow the continued implementation of the Mobile Money service pilot so that businesses can continue to improve and develop services and provide them to customers, with the goal of bringing convenience to people and society, especially in remote areas.

The Ministry of Information and Communications also recommended that the Government consider and amend a number of regulations in Decision No. 316/QD-TTg to suit reality and remove some difficulties and obstacles in service development.

Bao Anh

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