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Mastercard and Obopay to Launch Prepaid Card in Rural India

Mastercard partnered with mobile money platform Obopay to launch a financial inclusion prepaid card for smallholder farmers and rural communities in India

Mastercard and Obopay to Launch Prepaid Card in Rural India

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Mastercard and Obopay announced their collaboration on prepaid cards for rural communities in India which will work in tandem with the existing Mastercard Farm Pass platform.

The offering will allow farmers to receive payments into their prepaid card account and use it to transact at local outlets. The Community Pass digital infrastructure enables farmers who receive the sale proceeds for their crop digital to make purchases even in remote locations that have poor or no connectivity.

Moreover, Obopay Mastercard prepaid cards help farmers to build a transaction history based on their income and expenditure and further access customized credit options. This way, the product can boost financial inclusion for smallholder Indian farmers.

“Farmers in remote areas are often stifled by challenges related to connectivity, data speed, and complexities in using digital platforms. To address these concerns, Mastercard aims to empower them through solutions that are tailored to their needs and ensure transparency in the payments ecosystem. [...] Mastercard is delighted to collaborate with Obopay to digitally empower farmers and eliminate the credit access challenge.”
Himanshu Bansal, VP, Digital and Financial Inclusion, Mastercard Community Pass

Obopay will link the online prepaid cards with offline digital wallets to ensure a seamless experience for users. Leveraging the existing acceptance points of sale in villages and semi-urban areas, the solution will also digitize farmers’ spend and income, to increase access to credit alternatives. The offline wallet feature on the card also enables cash-in-cash-out transactions in non-network areas.

The new card product will mainly target smallholder farmers, Self Help Group members, small buyers, traders, and the participants of the adjacent rural ecosystem.

Founded in 2005, Obopay is a money service customer digital payment technology provider. It offers businesses an integrated processing money solution architecture platform, linking multiple participants into a transaction network. With mobile client interfaces across multiple channels, the Obopay solution maximizes customer reach and helps manage real-time mobile money transactions.

The new collaboration is one of the examples of the currently growing agri-fintech trend, which allows small farmers to monetise their daily efforts.

Nina Bobro

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https://payspacemagazine.com/

Nina is passionate about financial technologies and environmental issues, reporting on the industry news and the most exciting projects that build their offerings around the intersection of fintech and sustainability.