VEON: The Year Of Digital Financial Inclusion In Developing Markets

Sergi Herrero co-CEO of VEON, explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the acceleration of cashless payments, and how that has posed a challenge to the world’s unbanked population. In “A Look Forward: What Executives Wish for America and the World in 2021,” Herrero discusses how his firm’s  community-based digital literacy and entrepreneurship programs are harnessing technology and connectivity to improve education provision and livelihood outcomes for previously disadvantaged groups.

The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the world we live in, and nowhere is this more apparent than in our perception and use of cash. Yet, as the developed world progresses further into cashless living, for the 1.7 billion people who don’t have bank accounts — the world’s unbanked population — going cashless is not an option. This is financial exclusion on a global scale, and as we emerge into 2021, I believe the private sector and governments everywhere must work more closely to improve financial inclusion and reduce the world’s unbanked population.

In the meantime, we can build on the experiences of COVID lockdowns to accelerate the development of digital financial services tailored to the needs of individuals and businesses across our emerging markets. In countries like Pakistan — where 100 million people don’t have a bank account — mobile financial services like JazzCash are improving financial inclusion by offering users the ability to transfer money, settle bills and pay for food deliveries via their smartphones. In Pakistan, like many developing nations, young and fast-growing populations are yearning for greater financial inclusion, and JazzCash is enabling a level of participation in the financial economy that was simply not possible before. At VEON, we believe in the transformational power of communications and the ability of technology to help individuals achieve their ambitions.

In addition to providing access to digital financial services in developing economies, VEON’s community-based digital literacy and entrepreneurship programs are harnessing technology and connectivity to improve education provision and livelihood outcomes for previously disadvantaged groups. We are building the skills foundations for greater digital inclusion and the economic growth it empowers. Similarly, we are supporting hundreds of startups across our operating countries to help them achieve commercial sustainability and grow their businesses. As businesses and economies begin the recovery process from a tumultuous 2020, VEON is well-placed to help our customers while benefiting from the growth opportunities that will inevitably follow.

The dynamic nature of our markets provides us with structural growth opportunities across our rapidly expanding 4G networks and the host of new digital services they enable. For example, our leading digital financial services business in Pakistan, JazzCash, recently surpassed 10 million monthly active users — a rise of around 60 percent over the same time last year. We significantly broadened the reach of the platform in 2020 and benefited from a partnership agreement with Mastercard to extend the benefits of their payments capabilities to merchants and consumers. Elsewhere, our Ventures division recently invested in ShopUp, Bangladesh’s leading full-stack B2B commerce platform for small businesses, becoming its first strategic corporate investor. This has enabled our business in Bangladesh, Banglalink, to extend its support to ShopUp’s fast-growing digital ecosystem of micro, small and medium-sized businesses, which form a vital backbone of Bangladesh’s economy, as well as providing us with significant opportunities for developing mobile financial services for ShopUp’s users.

I see 2021 as a year of considerable opportunity for VEON. 2020 was a year that brought us closer to our customers as we adapted our products and services to support them through the dark days of lockdown. As a consequence, we enter the new year a stronger company — one that understands the needs of its customers more deeply, and one that has never been better placed to serve them through digital innovation and empowerment.