Efforts underway to make Bangladesh cashless in 3-4yrs: Sajeeb Wazed Joy

The government has taken a variety of measures to transform Bangladesh into a cashless society, said prime minister's IT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

The service will enable money transactions across mobile financial services (MFSs) and banks. 

"The IT sector of Bangladesh has evolved. Very quickly we have transitioned from 2g to 5g," he said while inaugurating Binimoy – an Interoperable Digital Transaction Platform (IDTP) – at the Radisson Blu in the capital on Sunday. 

"No one else in the world made advancements like the way we have." 

He said, "Most people, especially those who live in villages, use hard cash to make payments. 

"They sometimes have to face many difficult situations while doing so. Not always do we have cash with us. The world will soon become cashless. Everyone has a mobile phone nowadays." 

"We are solving our problems on our own, even before they are called out by people from the outside. I feel very proud with the introduction of Binimoy. 

"Our next target is to make Bangladesh cashless. All citizens will have a bank account and the country will become 100% cashless in the next 3-4 years if Awami League gets reelected," Joy added.

He also urged all to use Binimoy as it is a service of the Bangladesh Bank (BB). 

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak and ICT Division Senior Secretary NM Zeaul Alam addressed the programme as the special guests at the inaugural function Sunday morning.

BB Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder presided over the session.

BB Director Mezbaul Haque gave a presentation explaining the features of the platform.

Binimoy is a breakthrough platform for establishing digital financial transactions, which is a timely initiative among the far-reaching steps taken by the government to build a digital Bangladesh initiative, said a press release Sunday.

In recent years, the government has taken steps to make all bank, MFS operator and PSP accounts interoperable. It will facilitate transactions between consumers, merchants, PSPs, e-wallets, banks, financial institutions, government agencies and private organisations.

Binimoy will make all forms of financial transactions cost-effective, simple and transparent, including the payment of employee wages, the sending of remittances, the payment of taxes/VAT, the payment of utility bills and e-commerce transactions.

Binimoy is a web-based platform that will be integrated as a service into the apps of banks, mobile financial services and payment system providers.

Velwire Limited, Microsoft Bangladesh, and Orion Informatics Limited collaborated on the development of the platform as part of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Academy (IDEA) programme of the ICT Division and BB.

Velwire Limited will uphold the responsibilities of Binimoy platform.

The central bank, in a notice last Thursday, issued guidelines regarding the cost of the IDTP.

As mentioned, sending money from bKash to Rocket will cost Tk5 (per thousand). 

And sending money from MFS services (bKash, Rocket etc.) to the bank (per thousand) will cost Tk10.

On the other hand, sending money from MFS to Payment Service Provider (PSP) account will cost Tk5/thousand.