Stipends Disbursement through Easypaisa for Girl Students in Punjab PESRP (PMIU), Punjab Education Department (Funded by The World Bank) (September -2013)

Introduction PESRP Under Punjab Education Sector Reform Program, Government of Punjab offers cash stipends to girls of grades (6-10) of government schools in selected districts with the objectives of improving enrollment, increasing retention, reducing gender disparities and enhancing female prestige. Annually, the program is distributing stipends worth Rs.1.5 billion to 380,000 girls enrolled in grades 6-10 in government schools in 16 out of 36 districts of Punjab. The beneficiary girls are given Rs. 2,400 per year, in four equal quarterly payments subject to the condition of 80% attendance rate during the period. The stipend program is being administered through district education administrations and delivered through government postal service system.

PESRP(PMIU)’s Stipend Disbursement Overview PMIU is in the process of switching over the delivery mechanism from post office to branchless banking in 3 selected districts i.e. Muzaffargarh, Okara and Khanewal covering 28,000 girl students approximately in 44 selected schools. Another pilot activity of the supplemental stipend pilot project (Phase-I) has been started in 68 selected schools from April, 2013 for disbursement of the Jan-March,2013 quarter. The incentive package for supplemental stipend Phase-I Programme is to increase the stipend from Rs.600 to Rs.900 for girls in grades 6-8, and Rs.600 to Rs.1200 for girls in grades For Phase-I, 68 schools were selected by World Bank across six tehsils (Darya Khan, KallurKot, Mankera, Kasur, KotRadhaKishan, and Chunian) in two stipend districts i.e. Bhakkar and Kasur. Apart from the above said pilot activities, PMIU is successfully distributing the stipends to the eligible girls students of the government schools in 16 districts of the Punjab.

Pilot Project with easypaisa PESRP has signed an agreement with easypaisa for the pilot project of stipends disbursement to girls students in 3 districts of Punjab i.e Okara, Muzaffargarh and Khanewal. In pilot there would be around 23,000 female students (beneficiaries) will be disbursed approximately PKR 32 million within the month of September Pilot will run for 2 quarters disbursements. If successfully executed, we are looking at an ongoing disbursement to a huge student base each quarter. There were 44 schools selected in the these districts for a pilot run.

Training Plan in 3 Districts of Punjab

Activity commenced on 4 th Sep-13, easypaisa team (FS Sales, FS S&D and Franchise) met with DMO for an introduction with the team and to brief & align with the training plan Team visited DMO’s offices in 3 districts i.e Okara, Muzaffargarh and Khanewal

Training Plan in 3 Districts of Punjab DMOs, TOT session was conducted where FS Sales trained the FS franchise resource to further train the students in each schools 3 TOT sessions been conducted in each franchise location and also one combined session in TP’s Multan Office All sessions were very informative and innovative where everyone had shared his/her idea to facilitate students and to make the process easy to understand Trainings in schools started on 9 th Sep-13 and completed successfully by 12 th Sep-13 in all 3 districts There were 44+ sessions been conducted in all schools where around 23,000+ students been trained for stipend withdrawal process Sessions for schools staff were also conducted to get awareness regarding the new stipend disbursement project

Communication Plan & Marketing Material To create awareness and make it more convenient to students, special handouts(flyers) were designed and printed to support the training activity Posters were also printed and placed at each easypaisa shop in the pilot area An awareness SMS will also be sent to guardians /parents mobile numbers before the stipend disbursement Guardians will also get a confirmation SMS right after the successful stipend amount is disbursed Stall/Counter activity at each school is also planned during the disbursement day to facilitate student’s guardians/parents Guardians/Parents can also get the stipend amount from the EP counter at school’s premises

Communication Plan & Marketing Material

Training Highlights

Marketing Mix Product Launch a service to allow Easypaisa customers to invest in the smallest denominations of gold in a flexible manner Any person holding a CNIC would be able to bur or sell gold OTC buy and sell transactions will be mapped against the customers CNIC All transactions will be done on current spot rates Price The customer will be charged a transaction fee based on the amount they invest or withdraw as a result of the transaction Different price points for different investment slabs Distribution Easypaisa Mobile Account Easypaisa Retail Network Tameer Bank Branches and sales and service centers Promotion Promotion plans revolving around different ATL and BTL activities THANKYOU