DNCC’s Digital Haat: Nagad comes up with payment solutions

Taking the health safety issues into consideration in time of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) is not allowing any Qurbani Hat (cattle market) in its territory this year.

Rather the DNCC authorities have organised the Digital Hut, an online platform, so that people can safely buy sacrificial animals.

In this respect, the postal department's financial transaction service Nagad has come forward so that customers can easily make payments without any health risk while buying sacrificial animals from this Digital Hat.

As a result, sellers also easily can receive their payments without health risks. In this process neither the buyer nor the seller will need to go out of the house, said a media statement issued on Wednesday.

Nagad, a state-run financial services venture, is the payment partner of this state of the art digital marketplace.

Already more than 1,500 animals have registered with this digital marketplace with the help of 34 online platforms. Buyers have also started choosing their desired ones from different colours, sizes, and other varieties of cows, goats, buffaloes from this digital marketplace.

The DNCC is supervising the issue of fair pricing; so buyers do not have to worry about cattle prices also. And Nagad, the fastest growing and most secure payment platform in the country will settle the payment issues, the media statement read.

About the new kind of service, the DNCC mayor Atiqul Islam said, "This time we have started it experimentally. Though it is challenging we want to go ahead."

"Our ultimate goal is to bring the sacrificial rituals in a system so that animals can be traded in an environment-friendly and a hygienic manner," he added.

Tanvir Ahmed Mishuk, managing director of Nagad, said "We have been working from the beginning to make life easier for citizens and the entrepreneurs."

"Many problems are there in buying and selling cattle at the sacrificial markets. Usually in this time sellers remain concerned about the money that he earns by selling his animal, but now Nagad has come up with a simple solution to alleviate that concern by making the payments digital," he added.

So far, more than 15,000 visitors have tried to verify and select their favorite sacrificial animals from this platform.

In partnership with the E-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (E-CAB) and Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA), the DNCC has organised this very first initiative of Digital Haat.

Md Tazul Islam, minister for local government, rural development and co-operatives, recently inaugurated the Digital Hut through a virtual event. The DNCC mayor presided over the ceremony.

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim, State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak and FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim also joined the programme among others.

Nagad, a state-sponsored venture, is working to make people's lives easier by transacting digitally.

As a part of this move, Nagad has ensured that all other transactions are seamless and instant.

Even if someone does not have a Nagad account, they can still get money from Nagad against their mobile number. After receiving the money, the user will be able to withdraw money as soon as he opens a Nagad account.