Etisalat nominated in GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2014

Etisalat Group has been nominated for three GSMA Global Mobile Awards this year for advanced and world-class services offered across the Middle East, Africa and Asia markets. In 2013, Etisalat commercially rolled out a fully interoperable, industrial grade, open-loop commerce ecosystem, "Flous", across the majority of its operations. The scope of the service includes payments (merchants, utility, transportation), transfers (domestic and International), bank accounts/payment cards management, secure access, ticketing, as well as merchant payment acceptance (Mobile Cashier) accessible across NFC, on-line, STK, Companion Card, and IVR user interfaces. This award winning service has been nominated again this year by the GSMA under the category of Best NFC/Mobile Money Product or Service. Additionally, Etisalat was nominated in the category of Best NFC/Mobile Money Product or Service for its recently introduced Mobile Point of Sales service, Mobile Cashier. Mobile Cashier transforms Merchant's mobile phones (or tablets) into industrial-grade Point of Sales Terminals, enabling them to accept Debit/Credit/Pre-Paid cards and Mobile Money accounts payments in a secured, convenient, and simple-to-use environment. Through integration with Inventory Management and CRM systems, Mobile Cashier provides a full suite of advance business tools out-of-the-box, bringing to SME and Enterprise customers affordable and market relevant professional tools. Etisalat was also nominated in the category of the Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets for its leading m-Women programme, known as "Weena". The initiative involves empowering women in rural Africa by providing them with micro-loans and training them to start businesses distributing mobile services in their communities. Weena agents support the women by providing a tailored value proposition including relevant value added services and an innovative rewarding scheme through cash bonuses delivered directly to a mobile saving account that can be used exclusively for buying selected goods (e.g. school supplies or healthcare products). This innovative mechanism is leveraging on Etisalat's mobile commerce platform, Flous, and its entire ecosystem. "The GSMA warmly congratulates all those nominated in the 2014 Global Mobile Awards," said Michael O'Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. "We saw a record level of interest in the Global Mobile Awards this year, with more than 680 quality submissions, making it a very challenging task for our judges to select the short list. We very much look forward to recognising the winners at Mobile World Congress next month."