The Manila Times

Mobile money to drive financial inclusion

- LISBET K. ESMAEL

THE rising usage of smartphone­s paired with access to internet is driving the Philippine­s to reaching

payment provider said last week.

Albert Tinio, president of GExchange Inc., operator of mobile money payment service GCash, said in a statement more Filipinos have started to adopt digital platforms, which opens the possibilit­y

big chunk of the population that remains unbanked.

The telco noted 106 million Filipinos have active SIM cards; 73 million mobile phone users, 34 million of which are smartphone users; and 67 million Filipino are using the internet.

“Filipinos have come of age and are ready to take the next step forward. We are world leaders when it comes to social media and we are very comfortabl­e with the Internet. We have gone beyond calls and text and we seek to do more with our mobile phones. Thus, -

Leading the charge for this adoption are the youth as well as enterprise­s, he added.

Telco giants PLDT Inc. and Globe are advancing digital adoption among enterprise­s, for an example, through quick response (QR) code system present in various merchants to allow consumers to purchase goods via their smartphone­s or buy loads and transfer money through mobile apps PayMaya and GCash.

Globe recently launched GCredit in its digital wallet platform digital wallet platform, introducin­g a trust score allowing users to avail loans. It also partnered with Alipay HK for cross-border remittance business to allow overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong to send money online in seconds using the GCash app.

The Ayala-led telco currently has 8 million active users.

PLDT’s PayMaya including Smart Money, meanwhile, also have 8 million users. Last year,

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was targeting to cover 30 million users by 2020.

 ??  ?? Mobile money (AFP Photo)
Mobile money (AFP Photo)

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