Dialog eZ Cash Tops Over 425,000 Users
I just spoke to someone nice at Dialog and they gave me a run down of eZ Cash, their mobile money solution. The most interesting fact was that over 425,000 people have registered with the system in less than a month. That includes me, but unlike me, most of them have done one or two transactions. Mobile money is a big deal for all Sri Lankans, be they people without bank accounts, people who want simpler shopping, or small and online businesses trying to earn. It’s encouraging that this important system has reached a critical mass so fast.
How It Works
We can all imagine how mobile money works. Your phone has money stored on it and you use it to buy stuff and pass money around. This is how Dialog eZ Cash works in detail:
- Dial #111# on your Dialog phone
- Set a PIN
- Go to an eZ Cash outlet and actually put some money in
I’ve got up to step two but I’m yet to physically deposit money. But I have been seeing the eZ Cash stickers everywhere. According to Dialog, it’s now available at over 10,000 eZ Reload outlets, ie kades and communication centers. That should expand to their 30,000 strong network over time, but that’s still pretty damn available for one month in.
All of these details you can read on their site, I’m just giving you a skim.
So What?
So what? How is this better than cash, or credit cards? Right now the main market for eZ Cash seems to be Bottom Of The Pyramid users, ie, most Sri Lankans. These are people who may not have bank accounts and probably don’t have credit cards. For example, children of rural parents who’ve come to Colombo to work. How do they send money back home? Or people that don’t have Internet banking or credit cards. How do they pay bills without wasting time and money? Right now that’s stuff that eZ Cash enables them to do with their phone.
eZ Cash also enables a whole new way of doing business, especially for average peeps. If your trishaw driver has eZ Cash, you can pay him via the mobile. No more onerous scrounging around for change. If you’re booking a hotel in Unawatuna they can ask for a deposit over the phone. That’s all game changing stuff. Seriously, think about all the stuff we could do better if we didn’t have to physically walk cash around.
What Next?
I’m most excited for when A) more stores beyond kades start accepting it and B) when online stores start accepting it. Actually I’m MOST excited for when I can start accepting mobile payments online because – in the absence of PayPal (receiving) in Sri Lanka – small businesses have to really struggle to set up online.
Honestly, this is a long time coming and it’s a really good thing. AFAIK, Dialog has been negotiating this system with the Central Bank for over four years, but that it’s finally live and out to almost half a million people is a big thing for Sri Lanka, for rural/urban, consumer/business. Mobile money opens up so many opportunities for everyone, including me. So check it out, if you have a Dialog SIM just dial #111#. Send me some money.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
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 
Looks like a great innovation and the charges seem mostly ok, too. If I can pay my bills in this way it might make things a lot easier, not having access to simple direct debits as per the UK.
It’s apparantly a massive thing in some African countries.
Looks like another scam to avoid Govt taxes and a path to black money. Also the provider will make lots of money in the long run form non claim funds. Has central bank approved this system? Who is going to administer the system? If the provider goes busted like Golden key what would be the position of the users?
Most of the local banks are having branches in all rural areas and one can transfer funds to loved ones within seconds from Colombo or from any urban city.
Donald Gaminitillake
Let us change the standard
As mentioned, this is developed closely with the Central Bank. I think it falls under the Payments And Settlements Act. Money laundering is a major concern for them and its been mitigated partly by withdrawal limits of Rs. 5,000 per transaction (if you want 10k you can make multiple transactions). You can’t launder huge amounts through this, and each account is connected to an NIC enabling tracking of strange transactions.
Dialog administers the system, along with two banks. HNB is the custodian bank and Deutsche Bank is the trustee bank. The latter holds deposits equal to the amount circulating to settle customer if Dialog or eZ Cash goes under. Hence it’s their money and they get it out.
Banks do have branches, but it still takes more than seconds to get to them, and they have certain hours (plus ATM), plus sending money is not that easy. I’ve tried it and without Internet banking it’s actually a huge spend of time. It’s not like this kills banking anyway, it’s just another opportunity.
Thanks for the information.
Banks do have the facilities but never use it correctly
eg. I do sponsor three students in Urugamuwa. Every month I send funds. They have the account at NSB Dickwella. Use NSB ATM to withdraw the funds.
My problem was to tfr the funds into this account from Colombo. Initially I used Sampath net. It was free.on SLIPS. Then they started to charge a fee of Rs 100 and now 150 per transaction. I stopped it.
Then I went NSB Wellawatte and deposited three cheques. But this took more than 8 days to get paid. When I went to NSB and queried as to why it takes over 8 working days to credit the fund. They told me that a cheque to get cleared is 3 days then they will write a pay order and send it to dickwella branch.
I told them why cant they use the computer to credit the funds once the cheque is cleared. They told me that they do not have such instructions. If I pay cash they will be able to use the computer to tfr funds immediately.
My Solution is posting cheques to Dickwella once a month.
Donald Gaminitillake
Let us change the standard
Simply because you don’t understand the technology behind it, it doesn’t mean it’s bad.
On the other hand, if the Central Bank too doesn’t understand the technology behind it, then that’s a problem.
this is good news. thanks for this informative article