After almost five months of discussion, the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan decided to prohibit payments made with mobile phones, the Executive Director of the Association of Communications Providers Aibek Kurenkeev declared at a press conference on January 23.
According to him, the Association opposes restrictions initiated by the National Bank to the development of non-cash mobile payments and digital transformation of the Kyrgyz economy.
“Amendments to the provision on electronic money can lead to a complete stop of services, which have been chosen by more than 100,000 Kyrgyz citizens,” Aibek Kurenkeev said. “The idea of the project is to prevent users of e-wallets from replenishing them from the balance of a mobile phone and making mobile payments like the whole world has been doing for a long time. At the same time, the potential for the development of mobile payments is huge. Daily turnover now reaches 1.2 million soms. Many sectors of the economy are developing”.
In just three months of operation of the innovative financial services offered by mobile service providers, more than 100,000 citizens of Kyrgyzstan used them.
At the same time, in four years of other companies’ work on the market of electronic wallets, the number of their users barely exceeded 300,000.
“As part of the digitization of Kyrgyzstan and the implementation of Taza Koom national program, we would like to see another position of the National Bank in regulating the activities of e-wallets,” concluded Aibek Kurenkeev. (24.kg/Business World Magazine)