Safe digital financial transaction, imperative for a new society
By Niaz Mohammad Siddiqui
Bangladesh is on the move. Opening up of the economy in the 1990s and the effects of globalisation are changing the face of the society. These changes haven’t gone unnoticed by the world community. Positive observations by international community on the prospects of Bangladesh certainly raise optimism about the country as it is gradually becoming an important part of the global economy.
Among success stories of the country, mobile telecom industry stands out to be a worthy example. Beginning in the late 1990s, this sector has now ensured connectivity across the entire length and breadth of the country. With an enviable tele-penetration of around 70% achieved within a little over a decade, the mobile telecom sector has already surpassed the targets set in the National Telecommunication Policy by a long margin. Almost 99% of the country’s population is now under cellular phone network coverage. About 10% of the government revenue is currently being sourced from this sector. Such statistics adequately prove that the sector is a major development partner of the nation.
Mobile telecommunication network started out with selling talk time but with the market maturing fast, it has ventured into offering various value added services that are designed to cater to specific needs of the consumers. Launch of 3G services has ushered in an era of mobile internet. It is worth noting that already more than 95% of the internet users are accessing internet through mobile phones. However, lack of affordable smartphones is proving to be a major barrier to expansion of the market. The world’s leading handset makers are bringing out various smartphone offers with attractive price proposition.
Having fulfilled the nation’s requirement to stay connected, the industry is now ready to transform people’s lifestyle with digital services. It is not only shaping the transformational lifestyle of the urban youths, but also changing the lifestyle for womenfolk, both rural and urban. Women make up 80% of workforce engaged in the highest export-earning apparel sector and many of the women tend to be migrant workers coming from the rural hinterland.
A large number of the women are sending their money back to their families through mobile banking. This flow of money from the urban to rural areas is critical in ensuring an inclusive growth for accelerating future economic development. In this context, mobile banking can also play a decisive role in the national drive for poverty alleviation. With gradual increase in per capita income, mobile banking is set to work as a bulwark against the ever widening gap in income among different tiers in the society.
On another façade, Bangladeshi expatriates are sending home huge foreign currencies making it the single largest source of earning foreign exchange, which is critical for fulfilling foreign payment obligations.
Mobile remittance provides an easy, reliable and affordable solution to channel remittance money into the country. This digital service platform is gaining popularity among the expatriate Bangladeshis. However, further campaigning is required to promote m-remittance as a reliable means of channeling foreign currency into the country.
For urban youths and women, digital service is becoming an essential part of their life – they are increasingly relying on mobile banking, online recharging and various other services. Digital recharge is truly revolutionising the way consumers top up their talk time. Under this mechanism any mobile user can visit the designated online recharge gateway provided by the mobile telecom operators and recharge against the mobile number of their choice while the payment will be done through the online payment mechanism using debit/credit card. This allows the consumer with the freedom in terms of being able to recharge their talk time without having to visit any recharge agent outside. It has been reported off late that woman have been subjected to some unwanted calls due to stealing of their mobile number by social miscreants. Digital recharge very much guards against such social malice.
We have just started a journey. With greater population having access to mobile and other digital devices the potential for transforming life is enormous. Keeping in view our projected economic growth trajectory, it is only rational to presume that digital service will be becoming the key element of lifestyle for majority of the population.
The digital service is used to provide security service. Like advanced countries, we might witness that majority of our consumer purchase is done through the digital payment methods. With the evolution of mobile banking, steadily it is going to become a full-fledged alternative to the conventional banking system. In that case further safeguards will be required to ensure secured financial transaction over the mobile banking platform. Moreover, growing consumerism in the country will essentially make way for mobile advertising.
However, with the ensuing digital service revolution, there will be increased risk of security of financial transaction. In this case the service provider as well as the relevant government agency needs to come up with campaigns to raise awareness about how to perform digital transaction in a safe manner. The onus is also on the consumers in ensuring that they educate themselves with a right approach to conduct their business using this platform.