Fuel For India 2021: WhatsApp's Pilot Brings Digital Payments To 500 Villages

WhatsApp on Wednesday launched a pilot of adopting 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra, thus, aiming to enable villagers with access to digital payments through "payments on WhatsApp".

Fuel For India 2021: WhatsApp's Pilot Brings Digital Payments To 500 Villages/Getty

New Delhi: In a bid to accelerate financial inclusion in India, Meta (formerly Facebook) owned WhatsApp on Wednesday launched a pilot of adopting 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra, thus, aiming to enable villagers with access to digital payments through "payments on WhatsApp" at the Fuel For India 2021, Meta’s annual event in India.

The pilot called "Digital Payments Utsav", started on October 15, 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.

“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," Abhijit Bose, Head of India, WhatsApp, said in a statement.

According to the world's most popular messaging platform, the initial results from the pilot programme have been encouraging and 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".

Intending to democratise digital access, WhatsApp recently had placed the ₹ symbol in its chat-composer, thus, making it recognisable and easy for people across segments, to use its digital payments feature. WhatsApp has also added the ability in its main camera to scan QR codes, and added a layer of convenience for users of payments on the platform.