Mobile Money gets approval from Nepal Rastra Bank
Smartphones have become the go-to device for many of us for monetary transactions. The main reason behind it being the increase of digital wallets and the pandemic enforced lockdown. However, a new mode of payment, at least in Nepal, is ready to be launched. And as the title suggests, this mode is mobile payment. So, what is mobile money, and who is going to provide this service in Nepal?
What is this service?
Basically, it is a technology through which one can store, receive, and send money using a mobile phone. Usually, the mobile network operator or another partner entity offers this service. And no you don’t need a bank account for this. The only pre-requisite is that you should own a basic mobile set. It is different from mobile banking in the sense that you don’t actually need a separate application for it.
This service uses your mobile number as your account number. Furthermore, it is usually cheaper and hassle-free. As a matter of fact, in many countries, mobile money has overtaken the traditional banking system.
Mobile Money in Nepal
Nepal Digital Payment is the company that will offer mobile money services in Nepal. It is an associated company of Nepal Telecom. And like I mentioned earlier, the service recently received approval for mobile money from Nepal Rastra Bank. This company is in fact jointly funded by both Nepal Telecom and Rastriya Banijya Bank.
Anyway, they have planned on using the Nepal Telecom mobile numbers as the digital wallet. They have had the infrastructures ready for the services and were only waiting for approval from Nepal Rastra Bank. However, with that done now, this service should roll out soon.
So, your NTC number will be linked to this service. The company will use airtime top-up. That is, your mobile balance will be used for payments. However, another account will store the money intended for payments. For the time being, the suggested channel for this purpose is USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data). That’s because additional taxes are levied during recharge. However, they want to make this service as cheap as possible.
Furthermore, a digital wallet service is also on the card. And for this, Rastriya Banijya Bank will be used as the settlement bank. It is unknown when exactly this service will roll out. However, having received the approval, we should see it real soon.
- In the meanwhile, check out our impressions of the Galaxy A52 4G.
