New Delhi, April 24: India’s leading digital payments & financial services platform Paytm and Vodafone Idea, India’s leading telecom service provider, today announced an exclusive partnership enabling Paytm to exclusively power prepaid mobile phone recharges for Vodafone Idea under ‘Recharge Saathi’ program.

 As part of the program, any Paytm Customer including pharmacists, milk booth operators, newspaper vendors, even individuals such as security guards can recharge any Vodafone Idea number and start earning. All recharges and transactions would happen securely on the Paytm app in the Prepaid/Postpaid payments section under the ‘Stay at Home Essentials’ category.

Vodafone Idea’s ‘Recharge Saathi’ program empowers individuals and small businesses to earn an additional livelihood. They can start selling mobile recharges by just downloading and registering on the Paytm app. Vodafone Idea will also give an assured cashback to merchant partners for multiple recharges. Individuals and small businesses would be able to earn up to an additional Rs 5,000 every month under the ‘Recharge Saathi’ program.

 Paytm is the top destination for mobile phone recharges in the country. Over the last few weeks, the company in an effort to effectively fight COVID-19 has taken several measures to ensure that citizens can make all possible payments from the safe confines of their homes. It has revamped its app and prioritized essential payments including utility bills, mobile phones, and DTH recharge among others. This has helped Paytm to further witness a 42 percent increase in mobile phone recharges across the country.

 Abhay Sharma, Senior Vice President – Business, Paytm said, “This is a great initiative to empower people as well as help them earn an additional livelihood. Prepaid mobile phone recharges is a very important category for us. While we already are India’s top destination for prepaid mobile recharges, this exclusive partnership with Vodafone Idea will help us further expand our reach and make deeper inroads into the country.”

 Avneesh Khosla, Marketing Director, Vodafone Idea said, “It has been our constant endeavor to ensure that all our customers remain connected at all times, especially now, during the current national lockdown. We believe that this partnership with Paytm will help a large number of our prepaid customers who are digitally unengaged to remain connected without having to step out to recharge. This partnership will enable digitally connected individuals and small businesses to sell recharges and earn a livelihood.”

 From strengthening networks through India’s largest deployment of ma-MIMOs, to maintaining 24×7 network monitoring through central SNOC and virtual war rooms, to ensuring speedy and efficient addressal and resolution of network concerns even in the remotest locations through the field engineer heroes, Vodafone Idea has been undertaking multiple initiatives to ensure seamless connectivity to all customers during these unprecedented times. Vodafone Idea is enabling customers to recharge at ATMs, recharge via SMS, and is also encouraging digitally savvy customers to recharge for friends & family members through “Recharge for Good” program.