Before I start, it isn’t required to introduce Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to us Bangladeshis. There’s hardly any Bangladeshi here in blockchain who hasn’t made a digital payment. From Google Pay to PayPal to Venmo to Xoom, we've tried them all. Usage of mobile apps for payments, I would say, is more appreciated nowadays because of how accessible it is.
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I know you would be saying that “yes, we all know about such apps. We use them as well.” But if I say that there are more than 10 applications that provide Mobile Financial Service (MFS), then how would you react? With bkash and Rocket being most preferred of them all, there are Nagad, MyCash, MCash, UCash, SureCash who are quite popular as well. See, now you’re a little interested.
While the government is urging citizens to lean towards digital payments, people are already ahead of it. It won't be amiss to find at least one person in each household making use of MFS. One of the advantages of these apps is, even if you don’t have a smartphone or internet access, you can still acquire a digital wallet from these MFS with your regular phone.
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The rise of these MFS apps is mostly due to favoring hassle-free payments of utility bills. Almost, gone are the days when we had to stand in long queues to pay our electricity, water, or gas bills. Because of such apps, payments and recharges have become easier. Tk 7,652 crore worth of utility bills were paid by means of MFS from January to November of 2020, according to the central bank data. Even though people still prefer to pay cash for groceries, but soon enough that scenario will change as well.
To expect a behavioral change overnight is unthinkable, but a slow and steady growth can be expected which is already seen. The number of registered users of these MFS is around 92.5 million as of July 2020; the number says a lot about how much we prefer these MFS. So, maybe you won’t see a cashless future immediately tomorrow, you may see it in a few months. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that happening. Even in the race of tortoise and hare, the tortoise won.
