Message from Partner - Abacus Consulting

March 14, 2013

RECORDER REPORT

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I would like to acknowledge State Bank of Pakistan and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for their continuous support and outstanding efforts in bringing the region in line with mobile commerce solutions.

The GSMA, which unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators with more than 230 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, has forecasted that the Subcontinent and Asia Pacific region will be by far the biggest mobile marketplace by 2020, with almost 5.6 billion mobile connected devices, accounting for a 47 per cent market share; this will outstrip the European and North American market with ease. Domestic and international mobile money transfers, prepaid airtime transfer, mobile banking and salary disbursement; bill payment and loan collection through the mobile channel are just some of the services in demand from consumers in both developed and developing markets. It is clear that as the mobile payments marketplace becomes more sophisticated it also becomes more lucrative. Industry-leading businesses are looking outside of traditional revenue models in order to maximise the potential of mobile money, not merely as a Value Added Service - but as part of a vision of a truly connected lifestyle.

In recent years we have witnessed the exponential development of mobile as a payment channel, and nowhere more so than in this market-leading region - where in-app payments, social networks and virtual goods are beginning to become key drivers of strategy and growth.

In Pakistan alone more than 1.8 Million branchless banking accounts have been opened so far, with the average number of transactions per day at around 350,000, while the agent network under the branchless banking umbrella has exceeded 30,000 agents. Furthermore, the number of mobile phone users has reached a tele-density of 65.2 percent with 111 million users recorded by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). These figures depict that millions of consumers in Pakistan own mobile phones yet lack access to basic banking services.

Being one of the fastest developing markets for branchless banking in the world, the mCommerce services will create massive opportunities for the unbanked sector of the economy, bringing it under the umbrella of financial networks and increasing its potential manifold. There is, however, more to come from the field of mCommerce, as the domain is still to be fully exposed to the market. At AbacusConsulting, we aim to fully leverage our vast knowledge in the field of mCommerce, a place where we are now highly acknowledged and experienced. We aim to be technology and transformation enablers, working with our clients to help achieve their objectives from their valued investments in the mobile payments space.