Odisha Government’s Panchayati Raj Department, Indian telecom operator Vodafone and ICICI Bank announced their initiative to start mobile based wages to workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) in Odisha.
ICICI Bank and Mobile Commerce Solutions (MCSL), a subsidiary of Vodafone India, will implement pilot project in two blocks in Odisha namely Hinjilicut and Chikiti in Ganjam district.
Rajiv Sabharwal, executive director, ICICI Bank said that this pilot will help various state governments in handling the NREGA payments.
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ICICI Bank will open accounts to job holders under MG-NREGA after required KYC checks and their individual Vodafone mobile numbers will act as the savings account number. Beneficiaries will get their wages on their mobile. The customers will receive alerts via SMS and will be able to withdraw cash from nearby retail outlet by authorizing the transactions on their mobile.
The customers will also earn savings bank interest for the funds remaining in the accounts. They can also carry out deposits and remittances directly with their mobiles.
Under this program, ICICI Bank jointly with MCSL shall impart necessary knowledge and skill to the wage seekers to enable them to use the mobile phone to make transactions and read transaction alerts. The companies will also appoint a mobile retailer in each gram panchayat to act as customer service providers in the pilot project area.
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Sunil Sood, chief operating officer, Vodafone India said that Vodafone’s network of 1.6 million outlets can expand the reach of banking services from less than 5 percent of villages that have a bank branch today to almost 50 percent of villages.
