Nagad, Bangladesh Post Office's mobile financial services (MFS) provider, is setting a new record for highest account opening tally in a day, over its competitors.
Their daily new account opening average is about 1.8 lakh. As a result, the effective number of clients of Nagad has gone past 3 crore, said a press release.
The state-owned MFS currently has 30 per cent of the MFS market share, ranking second behind bKash.
This has been possible due to its simplified account opening process through dialling of *167# and setting up a four-digit PIN.
Besides, people can open an account through the app of Nagad after having their national identification number verified.
With this, potential users do not need to visit registration points or agents with the national identification number and photographs to open an MFS account, as mobile phone operators already have their users registered with their NID and biometric authentication.
Nagad uses the same customer data to open the accounts.
Recently, Nagad has signed agreements with all mobile phone operators to allow their subscribers to open an MFS account by dialling *167#.
"We had wanted from the very beginning that we would take Nagad to the people across the country very easily. Aiming that we have reduced the cost and ease the account opening process and through it we also have ensured liberty of using financial service," said Tanvir A Mishuk, managing director of Nagad.
From the beginning of Nagad's journey in March 2019, customers have been able to open an account instantly with a selfie and the photo of the NID card through Nagad app under its digital know your customer (KYC) initiative.
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.
After a drop in mobile subscriber numbers soon after the government announced a countrywide shutdown on March 26 for two-and-a-half months to flatten the curve on coronavirus, the industry began to win them back as the economy gradually reopened from June.
Since then, the subscribers increased and reached a record 17 crore at the end of January, according to data from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
A subscriber is counted after being verified using the biometric system and who has any activity (voice, data, SMS) at least once in the preceding 90 days.
