The central bank authorizing the country's mobile banking and financial service providers to send remittances to Bangladesh is a long time coming, as it will no doubt make it simpler for migrant workers and expats to securely transfer money.
While our migrant workers have been a cornerstone for our economy and continue to be a large component of our growth and success, mobile financial service providers have ushered in a new era of financial ease for citizens of Bangladesh, and have transformed how money is used in the country.
Indeed, dreams of a cashless society no longer appear to be fantasy, as more and more people, from the urban elite to those in the remotest parts of the country, are being brought in under the MFS umbrella.
Therefore, this move, allowing licensed MFS providers to send wage remittances in collaboration with internationally recognized online payment gateway service providers, banks, digital wallets, card schemes, and aggregators abroad, will certainly play a major role in expanding our financial inclusion efforts.
Perhaps most importantly however, the use of MFS has the potential to bring to an end the practice of sending remittance through unofficial channels such as hundi which, besides being illegal, also put the expat and the family in question in potentially dangerous situations while depriving the nation of being allowed to keep track of these remittance amounts -- Bangladesh has been deprived of remittances equivalent to about Tk25,000 crore -- which is about $7.8 billion dollars in the last four months alone as a result of the thousands of illegal agents that exist in the country.
All in all, credit must be given to the central bank for recognizing the numerous benefits this policy change would bring. The next necessary steps to implement the framework is to ensure that everything is in order and that there are no unnecessary bottlenecks that can potentially delay it. The sooner this is implemented, the better.
