SL pre-paid cards growth 'explosive': UK prepaid expert

The market for pre-paid payment cards in Sri Lanka will soon see explosive growth, according to David Parker, a UK-based pre-paid payment cards expert and Chief Executive of Polymath Consulting. Further, he also added that this opportunity stems from the fact that over 70 per cent of consumers own mobile phones and over 80 per cent of those are pre-paid, so local audiences have a strong understanding of the prepaid payments concept.

Additionally, he also noted that the country has a strong point of sale (POS) and automated teller machine (ATM) infrastructure as well as 70 per cent of its population does not use banks, which means the po- tential for the financial inclusion agenda is huge as it could be used for many things from benefit payments to person-to-person payments.

Mr. Parker made these comments at a recently concluded one-day training programme, entitled "PrePaid Cards – The Undiscovered Opportunity", which was organised jointly by "The Knowledge Conglomerate" and MTI Consulting.

According to a statement by organisers; "The workshop was to introduce prepaid cards to the Sri Lankan market. Participants were from Sri Lankan top companies representing banks, telcos, retails, financial institutes and IT companies... The programme

Additionally, he also noted that the country has a strong point of sale (POS) and automated teller machine (ATM) infrastructure as well as 70 per cent of its population does not use banks, which means the potential for the financial inclusion agenda is huge as it could be used for many things from benefit payments to person-to-person payments.

consisted of many activities, group discussions. In order to make the session more interactive, he used some real time case studies, and video clips related to the topic". (JH)