Easypaisa, the Telenor-backed mobile money provider in Pakistan, extended a service which enables users to make payments at the country’s e-commerce sites.

The provider claimed it is now the country’s “first comprehensive online payments solution” for e-commerce firms.

A media report from May last year said Easypaisa had launched online payments through a service called Easypay, but only mentioned one payment method for users – through an Easypaisa mobile account.

The same story said payment through a credit or debit card was unavailable but now the provider says that method has become available. Payment is possible through a local or internationally registered Visa or MasterCard card.

However, the provider warns users they must get permission from their issuing bank before making any type of online transaction because a majority of Pakistani banks have blocked such payments by default, giving an idea of the obstacles to growing the activity.

The third method available to users is to pay later for goods at an Easypaisa shop. This is the only option for non-Telenor subscribers or those without credit or debit cards. Users are issued with a system-generated, limited-time token when making an online transaction. They then take the token to their nearest Easypaisa shop to make a payment. There are 75,000 shops nationwide. Once payment is received, their goods are dispatched.