Etisalat Afghanistan has commercially launched mHawala, a new mobile financial services (MFS) platform utilizing Canadian software company Telepin’s Cayman Transaction Platform. This partnership is expected to lead to a full MFS offering that includes central bank cooperation, banking ecosystem participation, utility merchant involvement, and salary disbursement and will ultimately enable complete mobile banking capabilities and future cross-border money transfers.

“Mobile density in Afghanistan is currently at 50 percent and is growing rapidly. However, 95 percent of Afghans do not have access to banking infrastructure,” said Dr. Ali Asgharzadeh, Chief Commercial Officer-Enterprise. “This unique market cross-section creates a need for the investment we are making in Telepin’s Cayman platform. We can now introduce a much-needed innovative service to the market with mHawala. We have chosen Telepin because the company is a key leader and innovator in the mobile money marketplace.”

A subsidiary of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation ETISALAT, Etisalat Afghanistan is the first mobile network operator in Afghanistan to offer an entire range of MFS. The company has a presence in 18 countries spanning the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Telepin Software is a leading provider of mobile transaction software. Its Cayman Transaction Platform plays a key operational role in the distribution and management of airtime, and will be extended with subscriber wallets for MFS services.