Nagad, the mobile financial service (MFS) wing of Bangladesh Post Office, has won the WITSA Global ICT Excellence Award 2020 as the first Bangladeshi MFS for its role in promoting financial inclusion.
The state-owned MFS got the recognition, known as the Olympics of the ICT sector, at the annual World Congress of Information Technology in the category of digital opportunity or inclusion on Thursday, said a press release.
The Bangladesh Computer Society, the sole member of the WITSA from the country, nominated Nagad for some of its innovations in the financial industry that ensured financial inclusion.
The innovations include the digital "know your customer" for customer registration; the send money to any phone number facility that allows a Nagad user to transfer funds to any mobile phone number even if the recipient does not have Nagad account; and the facility to open an account with just a single touch or tap.
Last month, Nagad won the ‘Inclusive Fintech Fifty’ award as the best fintech startup in the world, said Tanvir A Mishuk, managing director of Nagad.
"This recognition from the WITSA proves that we are on the right track. In just one and a half years of its service, Nagad has had such a profound impact in the financial inclusion that the positive changes are already visible," said Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mostafa Jabbar.
Launched in March 2019, Nagad, the second-largest MFS carrier of the country, has already had about 2.5 crore active subscribers, which account for 30 per cent of the MFS user base in Bangladesh. It plays a significant role in providing low-cost services.
Nagad has been making rounds for offering the lowest withdrawal charge among all the mobile financial service (MFS) operators in the country, charging Tk 9.99.
Earlier, aiming to stand beside five types of small businesses, Nagad also introduced Tk 6 as the charge for every Tk 1,000 withdrawn to cut their cost of doing business during the coronavirus pandemic.
On September 6, it gave Tk 1.1 crore to the BPO from its earnings.
Nagad shared this amount as part of services revenue, which is counted as the BPO’s net income for fiscal 2019-20.
