(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Adding further momentum to the UPI services in Sri Lanka, PhonePe in partnership with LankaPay, launched the PhonePe UPI payments in Sri Lanka on May 15, 2024. The launch event of India’s leading digital wallet & payments app in Sri Lanka was graced by the presence of Shri Santosh Jha, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), along with a strong presence of banking sector executives, Payment System Providers, business associations and media.
High Commissioner Jha in his remarks at the launch highlighted that the ease of a familiar digital payments systems would further encourage tourism from India. He also urged the companies in Sri Lanka to engage with Indian companies to build on the UPI stack for innovations in hotel bookings, cab bookings and delivery services.
It may be recalled that Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi along with the President of Sri Lanka, H.E Ranil Wickremesinghe jointly inaugurated the launch of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with LankaPay on February 12, 2024. Referring to the Vision Document that was adopted during the visit of President H.E Ranil Wickremesinghe in July 2023, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had highlighted the strengthening financial connectivity as its key component.
Since its launch, over 6000 transactions have taken place in Sri Lanka, with a value of over SLR 240 million. It is expected that the PhonePayUPI launch would further enhance the extant digital fintech connectivity, including through additional linkages for instance with PickMe, a leading taxi services and food delivery app of Sri Lanka.
Expanding linkages in digital spheres not only gives strength to people-to-people connectivity, it is also a stellar example of India-Sri Lanka partnership in new and emerging domains of technology, keeping pace with the aspirations and expectations of the people of the two countries.
