M-Paisa Receives Telecom Asia Award for Best Community Telecom Project

Roshan, DonRiver’s client and Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider, announced today that M–Paisa, Afghanistan’s first mobile money transfer service, has won a Telecom Asia Award for Best Community Telecom Project at the Telecom Asia Awards held in Singapore. M–Paisa was recognized for contributing to the socio–economic growth in Afghanistan and promoting financial inclusion through salary payments for the unbanked. M–Paisa is part of Vodafone’s Group of mobile money services with over 22 million customers worldwide.

Over the last year, M–Paisa has continued to work with a variety of financial institutions, organizations and government entities, to serve as a catalyst for development, facilitate commerce and provide greater access to financial services, even in the most remote and rural communities. Through M–Paisa’s salary disbursement feature in particular, Afghans across the country can receive their salaries on time, in full, securely, and can transfer money to families, pay bills and purchase airtime using their mobile phones.

“As a lifelong partner for the country, our vision is to build an eco–system for transparent, safe and secure financial services to contribute to the long–term development of the country, and provide accessibility for 97% of the country’s unbanked population. We believe that M–Paisa will continue to play a critical role in ensuring a strong and healthy Afghanistan.” said Zahir Khoja, Director, Mobile Money.

Roshan is also part of the Vodafone Partner Markets program. Vodafone is one of the largest operators in the world with a family of 359 million customers in 30 countries. In February 2011, M–Paisa also won the Best Mobile Money for the Unbanked service, together with Vodafone at the Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain.