mHITs & Vodafone to launch cross border payments between Fiji and Vanuatu

By Leandra Monteiro

mHITs, an Australian FinTech mobile remittance platform, in partnership with Vodafone Fiji has launched a cross-border remittance service between Fiji and Vanuatu.

In a regional first, the service will allow instantaneous cross-border transfers between Vodafone M-PAiSA Fiji and Vodafone M-Vatu Vanuatu mobile money services.

“We are privileged to be able to participate in this wonderful initiative,” said mHITs, founder and CEO, Harold Dimpel. “Together with our partners Vodafone Fiji and assistance from the UNCDF, we are able to make a very positive impact on the region by allowing money to move more easily,” he continues.

“Vodafone Fiji will add the international money transfer service to the growing suite of services available under its MPAiSA digital wallet,” said Shailendra Prasad, Head of Vodafone Fiji eCommerce & Digital Financial Services. M-PAiSA currently brings into Fiji around FJD 35m in personal remittances every month from countries overseas.

Vodafone Fiji operates its M-PAiSA platform as M-Vatu in Vanuatu, M-Tala in Samoa, e-Moni in the Cook Islands and M-PAiSA in Kiribati. It plans to interconnect all these markets for inward and outward money transfer to make it convenient and less costly to send money across the Pacific.

Funding and technical assistance provided by UNCDF helped to catalyse the development of the solution and prepare it for market deployment.

Under the Pacific Digital Economy Programme, UNCDF aims to work with public and private stakeholders to build an ecosystem in the Pacific that enables digital financial services to reach and improve the lives of last-mile communities. The Programme is jointly implemented by UNCDF, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), with support from the European Union and Government of Australia.