KUALA LUMPUR, 15 FEBRUARY 2024: Maybank Islamic Berhad and TM, the nation’s leaders in Islamic banking and telecommunications, have forged a partnership to deliver the country’s first Islamic Banking as a Service (BaaS) solution powered by 5G. Designed for consumers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), this collaboration combines the best of Maybank Islamic’s diverse financial services and TM’s recognised Uni5G Postpaid Biz mobile packages, creating seamless access and experiences for today’s digital customers.
With local entrepreneurs and MSMEs to gain the most, Maybank Islamic and Unifi Business, TM’s digital business solutions arm, today launched their inaugural ‘Go Niaga’, a mobile business banking bundle to help businesses manage finances, improve incomes and offer digital payment options powered by secure 5G connectivity and networks. The bundle will address current market gaps among this segment, and enable businesses to better participate in e-Commerce and expand their customer reach.
Dato’ Mohamed Rafique Merican, Maybank Islamic’s CEO, said, “This partnership between Malaysia's largest telecommunications company and the country's leading Islamic banking institution opens up unique opportunities for us in delivering Islamic banking services to customers. This partnership is a significant step forward in financial inclusion. By embedding Maybank Islamic’s BaaS solutions within Unifi Business’ platforms, previously unbanked or underbanked individuals and businesses will gain access to Maybank’s essential financial services and 5G mobile connectivity through TM’s cutting-edge technologies.”
“While the technology originates from the BaaS concept, what makes it unique is its adherence to Islamic principles, making it the pioneering example of its kind in Malaysia. It combines modern technology with the ethical requirements of Islamic finance, providing innovative and faith-based financial services,” he said.
Shanti Jusnita Johari, Chief Commercial Officer for Consumer Strategy & Business at Unifi, said, “MSMEs are a key growth engine for the nation’s economy. At present, this segment accounts for nearly 38% of Malaysia’s GDP, yet their potential is often dimmed by limited access to digital tools and financial services. This is even more apparent among underserved segments, micro and small businesses who face the most challenges in accessing financial services and digital innovations that are necessary to elevate their lives and livelihoods.
“As a trusted partner to more than 400,000 MSMEs across the nation, we believe this partnership is a timely intervention to effectively address these challenges and help local businesses seize the opportunities of the digital economy. This partnership is the next milestone in our vision to become a digital powerhouse by 2030 and our mission to power a Digital Malaysia, improving businesses and communities through technology, and paving the way for a digitally inclusive nation,” Shanti shared.
Highlights of Maybank Islamic and Unifi Business’ Go Niaga offering
As the first bundle from Maybank Islamic and Unifi Business’ joint collaboration, the Go Niaga mobile business banking bundle aims to address the essential banking needs of local entrepreneurs and MSMEs.
To help local businesses streamline their operations, the Go Niaga bundle offers:
a) A lower minimum deposit of only RM 100 for customers to open an SME First Account-i – allowing them to clearly segregate their personal and business accounts that will help improve their long term credit rating.
b) Payment acceptance facilities through Maybank Islamic’s QRPay Biz, and Tap2Phone – enabling cloud POS via mobile devices to facilitate digital / card payments.
c) Credit Facilities including Maybank Islamic’s SME Digital Financing: Aspirasi Wanita Programme – providing more entrepreneurs access to funds that could help them stabilise and expand their business.
d) Uni5G Postpaid Biz 39, Uni5G Postpaid Biz 55 and Uni5G Postpaid Biz 89 mobile plans bundled with free 5G mobile devices – ensuring secure access to financial services anywhere, anytime and bringing 5G capabilities to more communities.
e) Cash rebates for Unifi Mobile bills when customers sign up and activate Maybank Tap2Phone merchant payment facility bundled with Uni5G Postpaid Biz packages.
This initial offering will be made available from 21 February until 29 May 2024. Customers are welcome to visit selected Unifi Stores on Tuesdays, selected Maybank branches on Wednesdays and selected Pusat Ekonomi Digital (PEDi) nationwide on event days, to find out how they can benefit from these offerings.
For more info, please visit maybank.my/goniaga or http://biz.unifi.com.my/goniaga
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

TM restores 85% of flood-impacted services and ramps up outreach to affected customers, communities and employees
Following up from the statement issued by Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) on December 19, 2021, we have since accelerated our focus on supporting the escalating needs of our customers, communities and employees impacted by the tragic event of the floods. As of today, 85% or 84,274 of our affected customers are now back online thanks to the exhaustive efforts made by TM’s engineering and support teams, enabling the successful restoration of our core services. We will continue this rigorous service restoration exercise to ensure the remainder of our customers are able to be connected soonest. For our affected customers, we have allocated: RM13 million to replace for free, damaged Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) and network components; A waiver of two (2) weeks subscription from customer bill estimated at RM5 million; and Credit term extension to 60 days to further ease the financial burden of customers. In the affected regions, TM has restored a majority of its impacted primary network sites. The flood had impacted more than 15 network sites and hill stations across four (4) states, due to power outages and in some areas, high water levels and severe road conditions, preventing our network team from accessing these locations. As part of the pledges made by members of the GLC/GLIC Disaster Response Network (GDRN) currently at RM58.4 million, the TM Board has allocated RM2 million in aid of the recovery, rebuilding and flood relief efforts. TM, via Yayasan TM (YTM) is also joint chair and secretariat for GDRN. Together with YTM, partner NGOs and the Malaysian Armed and rescue Forces, we have also distributed over 3,500 care packs consisting of hot meals, dry rations and hygiene items, and COVID-19 self-test kits provided by Pharmaniaga to the flood-stricken areas in Klang Valley and Hulu Langat. Our committed team of over 260 staff volunteers (TM Reaching Out Volunteers – TM ROVers) are currently assisting communities with the daunting task of cleaning up their homes, including 830 of our own employees whose premises have been damaged. TM will also ensure compensation via financial aid to the affected staffs, and the provision of temporary shelter at the MMU campus. Imri Mokhtar, Group Chief Executive Officer of TM said, “The immense challenges faced by fellow Malaysians during this unfortunate situation calls for corporations and businesses to come together to respond swiftly to alleviate the struggles of many, leveraging on our resources and means where possible.” “As co-lead of the GDRN, TM is grateful to serve alongside its members in addressing the needs of those trying to rebuild their lives in the aftermath. The worse may not be over, and TM is mindful of our role to support our customers, communities and employees as we recover as a nation.” “We appreciate the patience shown by all as we work hard to get our networks back up and running and ensure uninterrupted services in face of power shutdown and damaged equipment in some of our locations,” he added. TM will continue to play its aid and recovery efforts towards community wellbeing. More regular update is available on TM social media channels or visit our website https://unifi.com.my/unifi-alerts for updates.

ONE-MONTH FREE TRIAL ON UNIFI TV’S LATEST STREAMING APP, DURIOO+
Unifi TV, the content and entertainment arm of Unifi, is offering a free one-month trial of its latest streaming app, Durioo+, during this Ramadan period. It will also be offering free access to all of its premium channels during the Raya festivities. Durioo+ is a streaming app that produces and licenses entertaining children’s content with Islamic values, virtues and morals. With its mission to raise children with eemaan, akhlaq and ‘ilm (belief, ethics and knowledge) Durioo+ offers programmes like Mina Mila, Little Ammar, Abibi and many more – bringing safe, fun and educational content for children ages 1 to 12 years old. Offered ad-free, the free trial of this streaming app can be redeemed at unifi.com.my/raya until 30 April 2023. Unifi TV, Malaysia’s largest single TV aggregator platform will also provide free Raya viewing of its premium channels from 21 to 27 April 2023. Filled with special programmes from channels such as Sacred Riana (DEGUP), CoCoMelon (Moonbug Kids), Running Man (ONE) and more, families will be spoilt for choice as they celebrate the festive Raya period. “We are pleased to welcome our latest streaming app partner, Durioo+, whose programmes are especially meaningful during the month of Ramadan. As families spend time together during the fast, we hope to provide safe and inspiring content for children and families, reinforcing the values and virtues that are strongly emphasised during this period”, said Anand Vijayan, TM’s Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Unifi. “At the same time, we want to spread good cheer to all Malaysians, by opening up our full range of entertainment offerings during Raya. This is one of the ways that we are celebrating the nation’s diverse cultures together, by offering something for everyone during this festive period,” he said. To offer even more value to Unifi TV’s subscribers, they can now access the Aneka Plus Pack which will offer free access to VIU and SIAR streaming apps at only RM30 per month. Subscription to the Pack during this promo period includes the Unifi Plus Box and over 50 premium channels housing programmes from Korean variety shows, Hollywood movies, global news, kids animation and more.

TM R&D wins Global Business Outlook Awards 2021 for its innovation, CAMELIA
The Company’s solution CAMELIA bagged the Most Innovative Digital Infrastructure Services Provider in Malaysia at UK-based Global Business Outlook Awards 2021 Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd (TM R&D), the innovation arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) recently bagged the Most Innovative Digital Infrastructure Services Provider in Malaysia for its solution called CAMELIA at the UK-based Global Business Outlook Awards 2021. The award was conferred to TM R&D in recognition of its achievement for developing CAMELIA, which is set to become one of the digital transformation enablers for network operators to handle end-to-end processes for service assurance in TM. Commenting on the achievement, Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D said, “This is indeed a proud moment for us. Winning this award at the global front illustrates our continued commitment to develop solutions together with TM Group as part of our collaborative efforts to ensure the successful adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital innovations amongst our stakeholders.” “Thank you to the Network Operations, Customer Experience and Information Technology & Digital teams in TM for their continuous support and for incorporating CAMELIA into their operations which we believe will ultimately lead to an elevated customer experience. This recognition gives us the boost and drives us to explore more innovations for TM Group to serve a more digital society, business, industry and Government, towards accelerating Digital Malaysia,” she added. CAMELIA is an intelligent analytical platform that can provide the network’s health condition, fault diagnostics and localisation, and can predict potential service as well as line failure up to 30 days in advance. In addition, CAMELIA provides early warning alerts that shall help to transform processors from a reactive based troubleshooting process to a proactive one with the goal of improved quality of service and faster incident resolution. As an enabler, CAMELIA integrates with other operating systems to monitor all subscriber lines 24 hours and provide early detection. Early filtration can isolate the problem whether it is at the physical network element layer or a service layer. Global Business Outlook Awards recognises and rewards excellence in businesses around the world. It is designed to facilitate the outstanding work of businesses and business leaders across a myriad of industries – assessing their work in terms of performance, innovation and drive to create the industry value. This is the 2nd international award received by TM R&D this year for its work in AI and digital ecosystems development supporting the telco industry, which is a step forward in achieving its mission to build a smarter digital ecosystem. Established in 2001, TM R&D is the innovation arm for TM Group focusing on creating smarter ecosystems to make business and life easier for a better Malaysia. TM R&D’s solutions are clustered around four (4) pillars namely Intelligent Platforms, Data Brokerage, Connectivity/Tools and IR4.0/Digital Solutions. Growing from strength to strength since 2016, TM R&D has won multiple global awards and generated more than 2,800 Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and 1,400 digital assets to date. TM R&D’s innovations are all developed in-house and cut across multiple verticals such as Utilities, Retail, Agriculture, Healthcare and Education with safety and productivity as the top priority. For more information about TM R&D and its innovations, visit www.tmrnd.com.my or email your inquiry to business@tmrnd.com.my or follow them on LinkedIn (TM Research & Development) for more news and updates.