Nagad, bKash to deliver social safety net allowances

The government is set to disburse social safety net allowances with mobile financial service (MFS) providers Nagad and bkash with the view to ensuring transparency, speed and security to the process.

“We are now sending different allowances directly to the actual beneficiaries' mobile wallets. No middleman is needed here,” said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the inauguration of allowance distribution on Thursday.

This fiscal year, the government will distribute Tk 5,885.6 crore in total among 88.50 lakh beneficiaries.

Of the sum, Tk 2,940 crore is for 49 lakh old-age people, Tk 1,230 crore for 50,000 widows, Tk 1,620 crore for 18 lakh insolvent people with disabilities and Tk 95.6 crore for students as stipends.

The recipients can withdraw the money whenever they want without paying the cash-out fee of the two MFS players.

Of the cash-out charge, the government will bear Tk 7 and the MFS players the rest.

Nagad and bkash have been assigned to separately disburse allowances among 76.13 lakh beneficiaries out of a total of 88.50 lakh.

To pay out the allowances, the government recently carried out a pilot project in 8 unions under eight divisions.

Based on the project, the government decided to give out 75 per cent of the allowances through Nagad, the postal department’s digital service arm.

“For us, this is a historic moment. We have always designed all of our services keeping in mind the country and the people. As a result, we have earned the trust in a very short time,” said Tanvir Ahmed Mishuk, managing director of Nagad, which will disburse the fund to 40 districts.

The government picked bkash from the other private sector MFS providers as the company could prove its efficiency in the pilot project.

bkash is now assigned to disburse the allowances to about 20 lakh beneficiaries in 24 districts across the country.

Earlier, the government disbursed the funds among 12.37 lakh beneficiaries through agent banking.