<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">State minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak has said Nagad, a leading mobile financial service provider in Bangladesh, has grown into a billion-dollar company within the first three years of its journey.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The state minister made the remark during his inaugural speech as a special guest at the two-day ‘Smart Bangladesh Summit and Expo’ that began at the International Convention City Bashundhara on Friday. Junior Chamber International (JCI) Bangladesh organised the event.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“At least five more unicorns [billion dollar start-ups] will emerge in Bangladesh by 2025. Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given us a solid foundation where talented, courageous and problem-solving entrepreneurs can lead the world from Bangladesh in doing business,” Palak also said, adding that Nagad leads by example.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nagad, an MFS of Bangladesh Postal Department, embarked on its journey on March 26 in 2019. At the outset, it shook the entire financial industry by innovating electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC). In the e-KYC system, customers can open an MFS account using their smartphone in less than a minute just by taking a photo of their national identity card and a selfie.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, the state-owned MFS operator came up with an even easier way to open an MFS account just by dialing *167# on a feature phone. The ground-breaking innovations have brought an end to cumbersome paperwork.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other MFS operators and financial institutions have also adopted the Nagad-innovated e-KYC system and thus reduced their operational costs to a great extent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nagad’s success reflects its use of state-of-the-art technologies that allow the delivery of various services at minimal charges. In some cases, Nagad provides its customers with free of cost services.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nagad now has several plans lined up with a view to speeding up Bangladesh’s transition to a cashless society.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In four years of its journey, Nagad’s registered customers now stand at 7.5 crore, with its daily transactions hitting more than Tk 1,200 crore on average.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2020, the state-owned mobile money carrier scooped the ‘WITSA Global ICT Excellence Award-2019’ for its innovation of account opening just by dialing *167# on a feature phone. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>