WhatsApp enables financial inclusion in 500 villages via digital payments

In line with its vision to accelerate financial inclusion in India, WhatsApp today announced its pilot program of adopting 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra aiming to empower villagers with access to digital payments through ‘payments on WhatsApp’. The announcement was made at Fuel For India 2021 - Meta’s annual event in India, that showcases positive impact and socio-economic transformation delivered by its family of apps.

Announcing WhatsApp’s game-changing intervention for ‘new-to-digital’ users, with the pilot that aims to effect a behavioral transformation to digital payments at the grassroots, Abhijit Bose, Head of India, WhatsApp, said, “At WhatsApp we are committed to help accelerate financial inclusion in the country. We have started this pilot program in 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra as part of our mission to onboard the next 500 million to the digital payments ecosystem. We believe that WhatsApp’s ease of use and reliability can promote the adoption of UPI with users across, including those at the bottom of the pyramid. We will continue to contribute meaningfully in this journey of educating users at the grassroots, so they can trust digital payments, as they gradually make the transition from a ‘cash-only’ way of financial life.”

The pilot called ‘Digital Payments Utsav’, started on the 15th of Oct, 2021 in Kyathanahalli village in Mandya district of Karnataka, where on-ground facilitators familiarised villagers with various aspects of digital payments including - signing up for UPI, setting up a UPI account and safety best practices of using digital payments.

WhatsApp’s initial results from the pilot program have been encouraging. Villagers have begun adopting ‘payments on WhatsApp’ as a new mode of payments. The village-grocery store or the beauty-parlour owner and scores of other people and small and medium businesses - are now accepting and receiving payments digitally using ‘payments on WhatsApp’.

Below are some testimonials of villagers who participated in the pilot and shared their experience at the Meta Fuel for India event:

• Chidananda KJ, Gram Panchayat Member of Kyathanahalli village:“Withdrawing money from banks in villages used to be tedious and time consuming and ATMs also don’t usually have cash. Things have become much easier because of payments on WhatsApp.”
• Anil K.R. Poultry Shop Owner: “People sometimes don’t want to come all the way to the shop, instead, they just give me their list and location on WhatsApp and I deliver orders to them. I can also receive payments from them on WhatsApp.”
• Mahadev, Farmer: “Back in the days people used to carry a lot of cash. Now they just carry their cell phone with them for all their transactions.”
• Shruthi K. Beauty Salon Owner: “I’ve been running my beauty parlor for the past 10 years. Old customers prefer to pay by cash. I don’t have my own UPI-ID. So, when new customers want to pay digitally, I give them my son’s WhatsApp QR code.”

• Harish Kumar, Kirana Store Owner: “Customers come, just scan and pay. I don’t have to give them the exact change anymore, and because of this I don’t need to go to the bank frequently either.”