September 2023
mHITs (pronounced Em-HITS), the leading Australian FinTech mobile remittance pioneer, in partnership with Vodafone Fiji and Vodafone Vanuatu has launched a cross border remittance service between Vanuatu and Fiji.
In a regional first, the service will allow instantaneous cross border transfers between Vodafone M-Vatu Vanuatu and Vodavone M-PAiSA Fiji mobile money services.
“We are privileged to be able to participate in this wonderful initiative” says mHITs founder and CEO Mr Harold Dimpel. “Together with our partners Vodafone Fiji, Vodafone Vanuatu and assistance from the UNCDF, we are able to make a very positive impact on the region by allowing money to move more easily.” he continues.
mHITs has been working in the Pacific Islands for many years and has pioneered multiple first-to-market services in the region. This includes working with both mobile network operators Digicel and Vodafone, but also via customer-facing services such as the multi-award winning remittance service https://www.rocketremit.com.
Vodafone Vanuatu will add the international money transfer service to the growing suite of services available under its M-Vatu digital wallet. Vodafone operates the award-winning M-PAiSA mobile money platform in Fiji, M-Vatu in Vanuatu, M-Tala in Samoa, e-Moni in the Cook Islands and M-PAiSA in Kiribati. It plans to interconnect all these markets for inward and outward money transfer to make it convenient and less costly to send money across the Pacific.
Funding and technical assistance provided by UNCDF helped to catalyse the development of the solution and prepare it for market deployment.
Under the Pacific Digital Economy Programme, UNCDF aims to work with public and private stakeholders to build an ecosystem in the Pacific that enables digital financial services to reach and improve the lives of last-mile communities. The Programme is jointly implemented by UNCDF, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with support from the European Union and Governments of Australia and New Zealand.
UNCDF Country Coordinator for Fiji, Yenlin De Silva mentioned, “This is a great outcome from the Fintech Challenge we organised last year as this initiative will bring about market change and help reduce the cost of remittances in the Pacific. We are grateful to the Australian Government for supporting us with this initiative.” she continues.
For more information on the Vodafone Vanuatu M-Vatu service visit https://vodafone.com.vu/pages/m-vatu
about Vodafone Vanuatu
Telecom Vanuatu Limited was established in 1978 and is Vanuatu’s first provider for Landline, GSM, Fibre Internet and 4G (Mobile Internet). ATH (Amalgamated Telecom Holding Limited) group later acquired Telecom Vanuatu Limited TVL in March 2017. As at 31st March 2020, Telecom Vanuatu began trading as Vodafone Vanuatu.
Vodafone strives to be a world-class organisation with continuous improvements in the organisation’s work systems and processes delivering services and solutions to subscribers in Vanuatu. Their portfolio provides Mobile solutions, Mobile Money Transfer (M-VATU), Fixed line telephony, Fibre technology, WAN, LAN, IPLC solution, VSAT, PABX and Hospitality tailored solutions that are designed to fit budgets and businesses with exclusive 24*7 call centre customer service. Core values rest on innovation, customer excellence, creativity, professionalism, quality of service and lead the market by being highly competitive.
Vodafone continues to explore new boundaries in the Mobile telecommunications realm and bring to all Ni-Vanuatu, the next level of Mobile innovation.
Vodafone not only connects people with technology but also through sports, music, health awareness program that builds stronger and healthier communities.
For more information visit https://vodafone.com.vu
about UNCDF
The UN Capital Development Fund makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs). UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: (1) inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyse participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; (2) local transformative finance, which capacitates localities through fiscal decentralisation, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and (3) investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilisation.
For more information visit https://www.uncdf.org
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