Nagad hits record in account opening

About 1.80 lakh new clients are joining the network of Nagad every day just by pressing a couple of buttons on their mobile phones, thanks to an innovation that allows them to open the account of a mobile financial service without filling out any documents. This is a record in opening accounts and an example of boosting the financial inclusion using technology.

New clients are joining Nagad, the digital financial service of the postal department, in droves after it introduced the opening of accounts through dialling of *167# and the setting up four-digit PIN. Besides, people can open an account through the app of Nagad after having their national identification number verified.

Speaking about the unprecedented success Nagad’s Managing Director Tanvir A Mishuk said, “We had wanted from the very beginning that we would take Nagad to the people across the country very easily. Aiming that we have reduced the cost and ease the account opening process and through it we also have ensured liberty of using financial service. We already are observing the result of our endeavour. Hopefully, we will become the most popular MFS operator in the country very soon.”

After introducing the effortless account opening process, recently the second largest MFS carrier has also launched some campaigns, which also rushing users to join the network of Nagad. The download of Nagad app has gone up to such a level that it is in the top chart of the Google Play Store among the apps from Bangladesh.

Recently, Nagad has signed agreements with all mobile phone operators to allow their subscribers to open MFS account. As mobile phone operators have the information of a NID of a subscriber, whenever a prospective user dials ussd code to express his or her interest to open the MFS account, their information is instantly verified against the NID database and the process to open the account is completed. The innovation of Nagad has already caught the attention of many countries and global agencies.

Even in near past, people had to spend a considerable amount of time and money to open an MFS account and had to wait for days and even for weeks. In order to improve the situation, Nagad introduced country’s first digital KYC (know your customer). Later, Nagad took the step to open MFS accounts in just a minute through the Porichoy app of the government of Bangladesh. Now, a mobile phone user can easily become an MFS account-holder by dialling the code and set the PIN.

Only on February 17, about 1.85 lakh people joined the Nagad platform. A similar pace of client registration was observed before and after the day. On average, 1.5 lakh people registered with Nagad every day in the last two weeks. As a result, the effective number of clients of Nagad has gone past 3 crore, a development that is significantly contributing to the financial inclusion in the country.