Mobile money transfers come to Guyana

Mar 13, 2013 News

Money transfers and bill payments using a cell phone are now possibilities in Guyana.
Last evening, at the Pegasus Hotel, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) launched its Mobile Money Guyana (MMG) service and is now promising to introduce the use of cell phones to shop at supermarkets and even receiving international transfers.
With over 60 agents countrywide, GT&T will be hoping to use its partnership with the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) to increase its market share in especially the hinterland, where

The launching of GT&T’s Mobile Money Guyana (MMG) service, which will allow customers to send money, pay bills and top up.

banking facilities are scarce.
Currently, MMG, as the service is known, will allow GT&T customers to deposit cash into their mobile; use it to pay bills and send money to family or friends or maybe even employees.
Already, GT&T has roped in the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) and the Institute of Private Enterprise and Development (IPED) as two of the places its customers can pay their bills to. Customers can also pay their GT&T bills, including DSL internet and landlines with charges ranging between $20 and $100 – less than a taxi fare for visiting a city bank or utility company.
GT&T’s recently appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Radha Krishna Sharma, in underscoring the important role being played by cell phones in changing lives across the world, noted that it is a fact that one billion persons have the instruments but no bank account.
With credit cards fast overtaking cash, financial concepts are also changing rapidly, he said.
GBTI’s CEO, John Tracey, admitted that the bank was cautious at first, feeling that the new feature would have directly competed with some of its services.
However, the issues of cost and other considerations were ironed out as a determined GT&T kept pestering the bank which eventually relented. But the bank with its 11 branches will not be offering top-ups…these will have to be handled by the 60 vendors countrywide who will be cashing out and topping up.
GT&T’s parent company, Atlantic Tele-Network’s President of International Relations, Paul Bowersock, assured that the service is heavy secured, with customers having a PIN and the system under the oversight of the Bank of Guyana and the Financial Intelligence Unit.
Soon, as indicated, the MMG service will include allowing GT&T customers to shop with the phones at supermarkets and even conduct international money transfers. (Leonard Gildarie)