As part of the government's initiative to strengthen its social safety net program, SureCash, a mobile financial service (MFS) of Rupali Bank Ltd, is set to distribute allowances for the elderly, disabled and widows across the country.
The endeavour, although in its pilot phase, has already begun in eight unions of eight divisions of the country. But the government believes that disbursement via MFS will ensure expedition of the process and eventual strengthening of the social security for the helpless and endangered, according to a press release.
The Department of Social Services under the Ministry of Social Welfare is implementing the initiative.
Among them, SureCash has distributed allowance money to beneficiaries of Lord Hardinge union of Lalmohan upazila of Bhola and Raipur union of Barhatta upazila of Netrakona.
The elderly and widows are getting Tk 500 and the disabled are getting Tk 750 per month.
Local agents in areas are announcing via microphones, promoting and offering call centre support to make beneficiaries aware of the initiative with the help of the respective chairman, and ward members.
CEO of SureCash Shahadat Khan expressed satisfaction for working with such government initiative.
Through this initiative, beneficiaries from remote areas can easily withdraw their money and will have not to pay fees for withdrawal, he also said.
Transactions through the MFS operators soared 38.6 per cent year-on-year to Tk 49,121.1 crore in September, with the payment channel now emerging as one of the big winners of the Covid-19 pandemic.
September’s figure, which is up 18.6 per cent from a month earlier, is the second-highest since MFS was introduced nearly a decade ago.
In the same month, 18.5 lakh new accounts were opened to take the total to 9.5 crore.
However, skepticism remains as a recent survey report by the Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) of the Brac University revealed that 50% MFS account holders operate their MFS accounts with the help of nearby MFS agents, while 5% account holders operate with the help of family members and 4% account holders take help from neighbours or friends.
About 61% MFS account holders cannot read SMS, 28% account holders check accounts when necessary and 10% account owners said they received unnecessary SMS from mobile operators, the survey report said.
The survey report also said during April to June of this year, 15% new MFS accounts were opened to receive financial support from the government during the Covid-19, while 85% MFS account were already opened.
Rupali Bank is the only state bank of Bangladesh which provides MFS facilities.
Rupali bank SureCash is a complete mobile banking and payment service which has nearly 2 crore customers. It is best known for successfully disbursing primary students’ stipend to their mothers for consecutively for over three years now.
