Vodafone M-Pesa partners with Jaipur Rugs to help artisans

BANGALORE, INDIA: Vodafone India has announced a strategic partnership to facilitate payments to artisans via M-Pesa mobile wallets.

This strategic partnership is aimed at driving financial inclusion further which will improve the lives of many artisans, most of whom are women.

The strategic partnership between Vodafone M-Pesa and Jaipur Rugs will address this latent need of the artisans and will provide them the following benefits:

· Facilitate on time payments to artisans

· Enable artisans to en-cash wages from their nearest agent through M-Pesa

· Eliminate the high risk involved in carrying cash by Jaipur Rug staff

· Help to scale up the business by leveraging its foothold in difficult-to-access rural markets and overcoming other operational challenges faced by this industry.

Amit Bedi, Business Head, Rajasthan Circle - Vodafone India said “We see a natural synergy between Vodafone M-Pesa and Jaipur Rugs to offer financial services to the unbanked and the underbank community of India. We are delighted to partner with Jaipur Rugs to facilitate payments using M-Pesa`s safe, secure, and cashless transaction capability. From process automation to instant and secure transaction, we are confident M-Pesa will bring transformational benefits to Jaipur Rugs and further drive financial inclusion by empowering the rural community with extensive and transparent financial capabilities.”

Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Founder, Jaipur Rugs said, “We are very elated to join forces with Vodafone for this first of its kind initiative for weaving community of rural India. This will not only mitigate the cash transaction risk but also save many of our resources. It will also encourage our weavers to develop a habit of saving. I am very happy to have Vodafone on-board in our journey of transforming lives in the grassroots' community.”