Sri Lankan think-tank notes low usage of mobile phones for financial transactions
A think-tank based in Sri Lanka has reportedly noted that the use of mobile phones to do financial transactions is still low in the country.
The report on a new survey of mobile phone owners aged 15-65 years has further noted that Sri Lanka is among the lowest in the use of mobile phones for financial payments in Asia.
According to the survey, only five percent of Sri Lankans in that age group used mobile phones to send or receive money, according to the survey, ‘AfterAccess’.
The survey has studied how individuals in 23 countries of the what’s called the ‘Global South’ access and use information and communications technologies (ICTs), the local media has reported.
“On a percentage basis, the use of mobile phones for financial transactions was very low in the Asian survey countries,” the survey, presented by the LIRNEasia think-tank has reportedly stated.
The survey has also shown that Bangladesh had the highest use of 30 percent among the Asian survey countries with the highest overall being in Kenya, at 86 percent, followed by Uganda at 80 percent.
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka is committed to promoting the concept of e-economy in the country. Many steps have already been taken to develop the country’s digital infrastructure. However, the low usage of digital financial transactions means the opening of a business opportunity in the form of promoting e-economy in Sri Lanka.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/24052019/Z_2 |