Potential high for mobile-commerce in Pakistan

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Mobilink Head of M-Commerce, Aniqa Afzal Sandhu has said Pakistan is ready for m-commerce (mobile commerce) with 50 per cent cellular penetration and only 11 per cent banking penetration.

“Due to low spread of banking infrastructure there is a huge untapped market. Currently Rs0.9 trillion are outside the banking industry and are transacted through informal channels. However, the relatively high penetration rate of cellular services offers a lucrative opportunity for all stakeholders to benefit from the services offered through mobile commerce,” she said.

Having pioneered m-commerce in Pakistan, Mobilink shared its learning at the 2nd International Conference on Mobile Banking to encourage other players in banking and telecom sectors to follow its lead.

In developing countries, the practice has largely been operator-centric because there is a gap between bank/financial service infrastructure and cellular service availability/penetration, with cellular footprint surpassing banks significantly, she stated.

Though the cellular and banking customers are the natural target segment of such revolutionary services, the greater beneficiaries would be the untapped segment that neither has a cell phone nor a bank account. This segment will be a major driver for adoption of wireless technologies and services, she added.

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