New mobile remittance scheme for Indians in UAE

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Dubai: Over 1.75 million Indians in UAE will find it easier to send money home using their mobile phones, with Emirates' leading telecom company set to enter the $10 billion remittance market with a new service, reports PTI. Telecom Operator Etisalat, has partnered with Citibank to start the program in India and plans to expand it to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Egypt in the coming months, according to its Chief Marketing Officer, Essa al Haddad. "We are making it available for our Indian customers to send money to their relatives in India," said Essa al Haddad. The service will be available this month and will work with all types of mobile phones. However, Etisalat has not yet announced as to how much it would cost. It has been said that the service could threaten the hold of currency exchange houses on the $10 billion remittance business. According to World Bank data, around $52 billion in remittances were sent to India in 2008 by expatriates working across the Gulf, with UAE representing about 13 percent of the total remittances to India. "With something like this it will be much easier to send money back to India," said 32-year-old Imthiaz Abbas, a Showroom Manager in Dubai Festival City. "Direct remittance on the mobile will be much faster than to come to a retail exchange store."

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