(Kompas.com/Robertus Belarminus)

Bank Indonesia (BI) has teamed up three cellular providers with two Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren) to develop a digital financial service project, in a bid to broaden financial service usage among the Muslim community.

Telkomsel, Indosat, and XL Axiata inked the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the two Pesantren; Daruut Tauhiid in Bandung, West Java and Al-Mawaddah in East Java. The agreement was witnessed by witnessed by BI'€™s Deputy Governor Ronald Waas.

'€œWe consider this effort to bring together the Pesantren and the communications companies to have promising potential. Thus, we have launched an initiation to facilitate between them and the issuer of electronic money through digital financial services,'€ said Ronald in Surabaya on Friday.

The service, he further explained, involved cellular providers as the third parties that managed the technology. This breakthrough answered the desire to broaden financial service access, he said, which was in line with BI'€™s Islamic financial inclusion program.

In Daruut Tauhid, the collaboration will allow the cellular provider to conduct electronic payments and e-money transactions in the Pesantren, while in Al-Mawaddah the cellular providers will facilitate the electronic payment of the tuition fee.

Perry said that the Pesantren, with their publicly acknowledged leaders and the vast student alumni network, could play a significant role in developing sharia-based financial service development in the world's largest Muslim majority country.

'€œAs for the Pesantren community, the implementation of digital financial services is expected to create safer, smoother and more efficient financial transactions,'€ he said. (bbn)(+)

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