The Philippines’ largest fully integrated telco PLDT has teamed up with fintech startup CWallet to help provide Filipinos in Qatar and the rest of the Middle East access to financial services.

CWallet enables PLDT’s international arm PLDT Global Corporation (PGC) access to e-commerce platforms or digital marketplaces and allow purchases online even without having a bank account or a credit card.  The partnership also allows users to conveniently send cross-border payments and remittances.

Under this partnership, over 300,000 overseas Filipinos in Qatar would be able to tap CWallet’s Filipino-centric digital products and services such as mobile load, electronic gifts, gaming pins, and bills payment through PGC’s digital platform, Vortex. The service will also soon expand to the rest of the Middle East and in Africa.

“Now more than ever, we strive to remain at the forefront of keeping overseas Filipinos closer to home through technology. This partnership with CWallet allows us to bridge the distance between our kababayans and their families in the Philippines with digital solutions that help them take care of their loved ones even from afar,” said Albert V. Villa-Real, President and CEO at PLDT Global.

“It is our mission to empower and enable individuals in the region by giving solutions to low-income and unbanked migrant workers, allowing them to access financial services that are currently unavailable to them. Both CWallet and PLDT Global share the same values in providing the best services to OFWs in the Middle East and the rest of the world,” said Michael Javier, CEO and Founder at CWallet Services WLL. This initiative is part of a broader PLDT program aligned to help the country achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal #9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, and underscores the company’s focus area of connecting Filipinos everywhere.