MOZIDO, the mobile money partner of the Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League (JCCUL), has announced that it will double the size of its test market by opening its door to all underbanked citizens.

The initial phase involves allowing roughly one million credit union depositors. The second phase will extend beyond credit union depositors to roughly two million under-banked citizens.

The service will enable SMS or text-based bill payment, top-ups, and balance enquiry.

“Persons without credit union accounts can go to places like Paymaster to seek to register for this service,” said a source at a JCCUL subsidiary. Sunday Finance was not able to get an official response from JCCUL subsidiary, Centralised Strategic Services (CSS), the company in charge of the project.

“Nearly 70 per cent of Jamaica’s population is under-banked, so the national availability of the Jamaica Credit Unions E-payment Services (JCUES) mobile wallet will significantly transform the financial landscape of Jamaica, much like how M-Pesa revolutionised financial services for Kenyans,” said Kavin Hewitt, CEO of Mozido Jamaica. “Any Jamaican citizen with an SMS-based mobile phone will be able to manage their own finances on their own terms without paying exorbitant fees.”

Since March, the JCCUL received licence from the Bank of Jamaica to roll out the first phase of the mobile e-payment system. US-based Mozido’s mobile financial services technology enables JCCUL, which represents 42 credit unions serving over a third of the nation’s consumers, to launch a stored-value account mobile wallet initiative that delivers banking options to the underbanked.

“Mozido and JCCUL expect early adoption numbers of around 50,000 users by the end of this year, with exponential growth following the adoption curve over the next few years,” said Mozido in its release issued this month.