Smart Padala, the Philippines’ largest mobile remittance brand, celebrates its 14th year in the business with a 26,000-strong agent network delivering new and exciting digital services to millions of Filipinos nationwide.

PayMaya Philippines COO & Managing Director Paolo Azzola announced that Smart Padala now has over 26,000-strong agents nationwide, making it the largest mobile remittance network in the Philippines.

Long trusted by Filipinos as most reliable due to its ubiquitous presence down to neighborhood communities, and because of its quick and efficient remittance service that’s as fast as a text message, Smart Padala now serves customers with a growing suite of digital services that includes bills payment, Add Money to PayMaya accounts, loans disbursement, and QR payments.

The move transforms Smart Padala’s network of remittance agents into digital community hubs, serving as critical links for consumers at the grassroots level to access digital services. 

“Smart Padala is a critical ingredient in building a ‘cashless’ Philippines. Our more than 26,000 agents around the country act as community hubs for financial and digital services,” said Paolo Azzola, COO and Managing Director at PayMaya Philippines. “We are grateful for the trust that our customers have given to us and to our partner agents all these years, which drives our determination to continue improving our services.” 

As Smart Padala celebrates 14 years in the business, Smart Padala Head of Channel Development Butch Conejos shares that they are proud to be able to empower micro-entrepreneurs to succeed in their remittance business and achieve their goals and dreams in life.

According to the Inclusive Digital Finance Report released by FINTQ in 2017, more than 70% of provinces have medium to low access to formal financial services, effectively leaving them out of the growing digital economy. 

Spreading the reach of digital financial services

With majority of Smart Padala’s 26,000 centers nationwide being sari-sari stores, the service is able to reach even far-flung communities and barangays located outside the usual city centers–enabling convenience of financial transactions for majority of Filipinos around the country.

In the case of conflict and disaster-stricken areas such as Marawi and Tacloban, Smart Padala centers have served as crucial backbones in reviving the local financial ecosystem, which helps affected individuals and families rebuild their lives after such calamities.

“Through our agent partners, Smart Padala continues to deliver crucial digital financial services that are accessible to Filipinos up to the grassroots community level,” Azzola added. “At the same time, we are proud to be able to help micro-entrepreneurs grow their businesses and improve their lives, as highlighted by the various stories shared by our partners in our ‘Milyun-Milyong Tiwala’ campaign.”

Lilia Ramos (middle), one of the featured partner agents from the Milyun-Milyong Tiwala campaign, imparts her success story on how she started her Smart Padala business and became the top performing and most trusted agent in San Jose, Rodriguez Rizal. Joining here are PayMaya COO and Managing Director Paolo Azzola (left) and Smart Padala Head of Channel Development Butch Conejos (right)

Aspiring entrepreneurs can quickly and easily start a Smart Padala business because there is no franchise fee required. Once complete business requirements have been submitted, the Smart Padala store can be built and operated in less than a week.

Smart Padala is the country’s leading mobile remittance service under PayMaya Philippines, the digital financial services arm of Voyager Innovations backed by KKR, Tencent, and PLDT. To know more about Smart Padala or to sign up as an agent, visit www.smartpadala.ph or follow @SmartPadalaPH on Facebook

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