Essel Group's multi-purpose prepaid cash card provider ItzCash announced on Wednesday that it plans to spread its wings in rural markets in the country by next year.
"We plan to open another 50,000 exclusive outlets in rural areas by next year under the brand name 'ItzCash Point'and 'ItzCash World', besides opening franchisee network up to 12,000," ItzCash Vice-President, Marketing, Shekher Srivastava told PTI on Tuesday.
"About 1,000 franchisee will be established in South India alone," he added.
At present, the company has one lakh outlets and about 10,000 franchisees in India.
"All these new outlets will be set up in tier-III cities and villages to facilitate the rural population," he said ItzCash plans for tie-ups with banks in rural areas so that people could use core-banking facilities to use ItzCash cards, which provides cash management to its customers across various sectors through mobile and web, he said.
Available in a range of denominations from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000, the card will allow consumers be in charge of what they spend, he said, adding that the card would enable micro payments of even Rs 10.
Shekher said the company would also be entering into agreements with state governments in their e-governance programmes. "Currently, we are holding talks with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal governments to implement its e-governance programmes", he said.
Shekher said that the company now handles 10,000 transactions per day, worth Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million), the second largest transaction by a company in a single day.
"This transaction is expected to increase by 20 per cent during next year".
The company has already tied up with Thomas Cook to facilitate online travel bookings.
