Bangladesh Bank and DNCC honour bKash

Bangladesh Bank (BB) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) have honoured bKash for significant contribution as payment partner to the 'Smart Bangladesh, Smart Haat' initiative taken during Eid-ul-Azha in six cattle markets of DNCC areas.  

DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam handed over the crest to Major General Sheikh Md Monirul Islam (retd), chief external and corporate affairs officer of bKash, at a programme held at DNCC auditorium in the city on Wednesday (4 August), said a press release.

Among others, Md Khurshid Alam, executive director, and Shah Zia-Ul Haque, additional director of Payment Systems Division (PSD) of Bangladesh Bank, Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee, vice president, Merchant Business of bKash and other high officials were present at the event.

According to the media release, as part of building digital Bangladesh and to reduce cash dependency as well as preventing fraudulent activities in cattle markets, Bangladesh Bank and DNCC conducted the pilot project "Smart Bangladesh, Smart Haat" in six cattle haats at Gabtoli, Basila, Aftabnagar, Vatara, Kawla and Uttara Sector 17 during Eid-ul-Azha.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association were the collaborators in the initiative. Besides six banks, VISA and Mastercard, country's largest mobile financial services provider bKash was the MFS payment partner in each of these cattle markets. bKash also provided similar payment services to other large cattle markets through the approval of Bangladesh Bank.

As a result, sacrificial cattle buyers availed the convenience of purchasing animals as well as paying Hasil (charge that buyers pay on the purchasing price) through bKash payment. On the other hand, the sellers and leaseholders could avoid the risk of cash and get the money to their bank accounts. They also availed charge-free cash out service from bKash agent points.