Digitising rickshaws can unlock financial inclusion for millions

Every city has its soul — and in Bangladesh, that soul rides on three wheels.

The humble rickshaw carries more than passengers; it carries the pulse of urban life. Nearly 3.5 million people — drivers, owners, mechanics, and families — depend on this ecosystem. Yet they remain largely invisible in formal records, unbanked, and beyond the reach of policy or finance.

A digital registration framework for rickshaws and e-rickshaws, now being piloted across districts, promises to change that. Each vehicle will carry a digital identity, every driver a QR-coded licence, and each payment a traceable digital footprint. At first glance, it may seem like just another administrative initiative. In truth, it may become one of Bangladesh's most consequential economic participation breakthroughs — where millions of invisible workers cross the threshold from informality to recognition, from exclusion to possibility.

When a rickshaw enters the digital registry, it does not just gain compliance — it gains identity. That identity enables financial visibility. A previously unbanked driver becomes a potential client with transaction data and a credit profile. A once informal vehicle becomes verifiable collateral. This is financial inclusion built not on subsidy, but on connectivity and data. The same logic that made bKash successful — replacing the trust deficit with transaction evidence — applies here with equal force.

Consider Karim, a driver in Mirpur. He uses his mobile wallet to pay his monthly registration fee — Tk200 deducted automatically. Over six months, this creates a payment history: consistent, reliable, never late. A bank offers him a micro-savings account with a deposit match. Within a year, he has saved enough for his son's school admission. Then comes the breakthrough — a Tk50,000 loan to upgrade to an electric rickshaw, approved not because he owns land, but because his digital footprint proves he is creditworthy.

Insurance follows, deducted daily at Tk15, covering accidents and theft. His daughter's education fund grows through small automatic round-ups from his daily earnings. None of this requires a branch visit or a guarantor. It requires only that he exists, digitally, in the formal economy.

This is not a pilot idea — it is a blueprint for scaling financial visibility across Bangladesh's informal economy.

The ripple effects extend well beyond individual drivers. Banks partnering with e-rickshaw manufacturers can create structured instalment schemes in which drivers purchase vehicles through affordable payments while immediately generating income. Because these vehicles are electric, they address two of Bangladesh's most pressing urban problems simultaneously: traffic congestion and emissions. This positions the initiative naturally within Bangladesh Bank's green finance framework, creating aligned incentives for lenders, borrowers, and the environment. Manufacturers gain reliable bulk orders. Banks acquire millions of new customers with verifiable income streams. Government revenue grows as digital transactions create transparent tax flows where none previously existed.

India's experience offers both inspiration and caution. The 2015 Motor Vehicles Amendment Act brought recognition and licensing, which triggered access to financing and insurance. Within five years, hundreds of thousands of vehicles were formalised. Bangladesh can leapfrog that trajectory — we are digitising from the start, during a period of near-universal mobile connectivity and a robust fintech infrastructure already tested at scale.

But India's journey also carries a warning: registration without benefit becomes a bureaucratic burden; data without governance becomes surveillance infrastructure; financing without protection invites predatory lending. The difference between a system that empowers and one that exploits comes down to design choices made before deployment, not corrections applied after harm.

Data use must be legally confined to licensing and financial access. Drivers must understand what they share and retain meaningful control over it. Independent oversight through driver unions, civil society, and technical experts must be built into the architecture from day one.

Ethical design is not a constraint on this initiative. It is the condition that makes it worth building.

Behind every QR code lies a human story. When Karim scans his licence renewal, it is not merely a transaction — it is recognition. He exists in the formal economy. When his daughter receives a scholarship linked to an education savings account funded by daily micro-deposits, that is economic participation in action: generational change, not abstract theory.

The revolution has already begun — quietly, persistently, one registration and one dignified transaction at a time. The technology exists. The policy framework is finally taking shape. The only question remaining is whether we will build this system with the ethical discipline and inclusive intent it demands.

We are not just digitising transport. We are redefining who gets to belong in the economy.

Md Mahmudul Hasan, Digital Banking and Fintech Strategist

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.