VEON’s Mobilink Microfinance Bank Promotes Financial Inclusion and Supports Farmers with Programmes to Drive Economic Prosperity in Pakistan
15 September 2022 - 5:00PM
VEON’s Mobilink Microfinance Bank Promotes Financial Inclusion and
Supports Farmers with Programmes to Drive Economic Prosperity in
Pakistan
Amsterdam, 15th September 2022: VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON,
Euronext Amsterdam: VEON), a global digital operator that provides
converged connectivity and services, today announces that its
operator Mobilink Microfinance Bank in Pakistan has launched three
major initiatives to financially empower female entrepreneurs and
support farmers in the country. Mobilink Microfinance Bank Ltd.
(MMBL) is VEON’s financial services arm in Pakistan and the
country’s largest digital bank.
The three Mobilink Microfinance Bank initiatives include
low-cost 4G handsets for customers bundled with the bank’s digital
banking application, e-commerce services for female entrepreneurs,
and an agriculture advisory service for farmers in
Pakistan.
Mobilink Microfinance Bank (MMBL) is introducing low-cost 4G
handsets for its customers to drive participation in the digital
economy among marginalized groups within the population. Targeted
at female entrepreneurs, the substantially discounted Digit 4G
handsets will come pre-loaded with the digital banking application,
MMBL DOST, which will enable customers to obtain quick financial
assistance, pay bills, make money transfers and use a vast array of
digital banking services.
Mobilink Microfinance Bank has also collaborated with Daraz,
Pakistan’s largest e-commerce platform, to help incentivise and
upskill female entrepreneurs with brick-and-mortar stores to go
digital and expand their customer outreach across the country.
Although females comprise of almost half the population of
Pakistan, their financial inclusion figure stands at 7%1. With a
growing 3G/4G subscriber base in the country that currently
represents 53% of the total 195 million cellular subscribers2,
Mobilink Microfinance Bank, under its flagship Women Inspirational
Network (WIN) programme, aims to support an enabling digital
financial ecosystem for empowering women, an underserved, yet
influential segment of the country through such initiatives.
“As a digital operator, VEON is focused on providing
high-quality connectivity while building a digital services
ecosystem to meet customers’ needs and transform their lives. These
initiatives will accelerate financial inclusion in Pakistan, drive
economic growth, and play an important role in the digitalisation
of the local microfinance industry,” states Kaan Terzioglu, VEON
Group CEO at the launch.
To provide an agriculture advisory service for Pakistan’s
farmers, Mobilink Microfinance Bank has partnered with a leading
AgriTech company BaKhabar Kissan. The digital service will
provide advice on planting profitable crops, monitoring weather,
livestock management, and how to boost agricultural yields.
Agriculture represents 22.7% of Pakistan’s GDP and employs around
37.4% of the workforce3. The recent floods in the country have
destroyed 3.6 million acres of crops and caused a loss of 700,000
livestock4.
“For over 10 years, Mobilink Microfinance Bank has been playing
a game-changing role in empowering marginalized and underserved
communities in Pakistan,” explains Ghazanfar Azzam, President &
CEO of Mobilink Microfinance Bank. “Through these
initiatives, we are aiming to build a digital infrastructure that
will help further economic prosperity and financial empowerment
among women business owners and small and medium-sized farmers in
the country; two segments that have the potential to transform
Pakistan’s economic future.”
About VEONVEON is a digital operator that provides
converged connectivity and digital services to over 200 million
customers. Operating across seven countries that are home to
more than 8% of the world’s population, VEON is transforming
lives through technology-driven services that empower individuals
and drive economic growth. Headquartered in Amsterdam, VEON
is listed on NASDAQ and Euronext.
For more information, visit: https://www.veon.com
About Mobilink Microfinance Bank Ltd.
Mobilink Microfinance Bank Ltd. is Pakistan’s
largest digital bank with over 40 million registered users
including 16+ million monthly active mobile users. With a hybrid
model that combines traditional microfinance with mobile/digital
banking technologies, the bank now operates with over 100 branches
and 200,000 branchless banking agents, and provides a USSD (GSM)
based digital channel offering savings, micro enterprise (MSME)
loans, small housing loans, remittances, collection (utility bills
and loan installments), mobile wallets, insurance, G2P, B2B &
B2P payments; thus, playing a leading role in the promotion of
financial inclusion.For more information
visit: www.mobilinkbank.com
DisclaimerThis release contains “forward-looking
statements,” as the phrase is defined in Section 27A of the U.S.
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S.
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking
statements are not historical facts, and include statements
relating to, among other things, VEON’s initiatives in Pakistan.
Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and
uncertainties, many of which VEON cannot predict with accuracy and
some of which VEON might not even anticipate. The forward-looking
statements contained in this release speak only as of the date of
this release. VEON does not undertake to publicly update, except as
required by U.S. federal securities laws, any forward-looking
statement to reflect events or circumstances after such dates or to
reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Contact Information
- Group Communications
Director
Marina LevinaPR@veon.com
Julian.tanner@tuvapartners.com
1
https://karandaaz.com.pk/blog/financial-inclusion-increasing-gender-disparity/
2 https://www.pta.gov.pk/en/telecom-indicators
3 Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-21
https://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_21/02-Agriculture.pdf
4 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62728678
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