Nagad, a digital financial service, on Tuesday claimed that the wait is almost over in their quest to receive the final approval from Bangladesh Bank, owing to a delay in share transfer to the Bangladesh Post Office.
The mobile financial service (MFS) operator's managing director Tanvir Ahmed Mishuk said this during a discussion with the media at the Westin Dhaka hotel yesterday.
Asked about the delay, Mishuk said that the government is now considering about possibilities of incurring losses, a burden it must share after receiving majority shares.
The government, along with the finance ministry, might be assessing the risk factors along with taking permission from relevant authorities, which might explain the delay, said the managing director.
The operator has three more months, until June 30 this year to finish all the formalities and become a full-fledged MFS provider, as it had been running on an interim licence until now.
The process to transfer 51 per cent shares of Nagad to the Bangladesh Post Office has started and all the procedures look to be on track to finish within the timeframe set by the central bank, said Mishuk.
The Department of Posts applied to the Bangladesh Bank for an extension to Nagad’s temporary approval, which expired on March 15 while the validity of the interim licence for Nagad -- a joint venture between the Bangladesh Post Office and Third Wave Technologies -- has been extended to June 30 this year.
Nagad Limited, previously Third Wave Technologies, has been operating the MFS after winning a tender of Bangladesh Post Office on the basis of a revenue-sharing model.
Under the model, Bangladesh Post Office will receive 51 per cent of revenue generated against the operations of the MFS, without making any investments or holding shares of Nagad.
To acquire the central bank’s approval, like other bank-led MFS operators, Nagad will have to transfer 51 per cent of its shares to the government.
Nagad has received no-objection certificate from Bangladesh Bank and was supposed to complete all formalities by this time.
During the discussion, Nagad CEO Rahel Ahmed said that Nagad’s market share reached 32-35 per cent in March.
The operator’s subscriber base reached to 3.8 crore in March from 2 crore in November, 2020.
Their daily transaction reached around Tk 400 crore in March this year from Tk 150 crore in November last year.
Nagad director Niaz Morshed Elite, executive director Shafayet Alam and the Bangladesh Post Office additional general manager Zakir Hasan Nur also were present in the discussion.