Dialog Launches Mobile Payments
Damn cool. Can’t wait to try it out. Finally the Central Bank has budged (on mobile companies not being banks and not being able to handle money) and we should be able to use our phone for payments, and sales. This is the promise, I haven’t yet seen the system, but it sure looks promising.
This has benefits for people trying to do business online, but also for the unbanked. If done right, mobile payments can really kickstart some growth.
Customers could load cash from 10,000 outlets around Sri Lanka to their ‘eZ Cash’ branded mobile account or transfer money from an internet banking account.
They could also withdraw up to 10,000 rupees a day from the outlets with the cashier being a human teller, Wijayasuriya said. The same network of dealers that are now doing mobile top ups for prepaid phone customers would offer the mobile wallet service.
All registered Dialog customers could open a 10,000 rupee wallet through the phone with no additional documentation and no registration fee. An account with a 25,000 rupee balance would need additional verification.
The mobile payment service can be used to pay utility bills or to buy goods and services online or even make over the counter payments at thousands of shops across the island, Fariq Cader, head of Dialog’s e-ecommerce service said.
Money could also be transferred to another wallet holder. (LBO)
Posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2012 in Business.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
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I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
Finally. ;)
[...] Indi.ca informs that the Sri Lankan Central Bank has given permission to launch mobile payment systems in Sri Lanka for the first time. Tweet Indi.ca informs that the Sri Lankan Central Bank has given permission to launch mobile payment systems in Sri Lanka for the first time. [...]
@Indi:
This is an idea that came in to my mind a few months ago.
I know most of the Sri Lankans now have access to some kind of a mobile phone.
We know the government is spending a lot on educating people in multiple languages. Which is not bad. But it will take another 20-30 years to be effective.
As a short term solution the gov can start a “NATIONAL TRANSLATION SERVICE” via a common telephone number. If someone needs a translation, he/she just needs to switch on the speaker phone and dial this common number to get a translation.
The gov will have to recruit 2-3000 employees for this projects. But the benefits will be extremely high. We should educate all government/ private sector workers to ask that basic question in all three languages; “Do you need a translation?”
I think google translator already supports tamil. We need to get it to support Sinhala as well. That will enable people to use google translator more effectively for Sinhala and tamil translations.
If you know/have access to someone who is powerful enough to take decisions, please pass on this message. Thanks.
One sign that an idea is good is that it emerges from multiple minds.
Please see http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/an-idea-to-surpass-the-language-impasse-in-lanka/ for most recent discussion. This has been going on since 2009.
“on mobile companies not being banks and not being able to handle money”.
This is not true. It’s not about handling money, but about handling credit.