Honorable Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal has proposed an allocation of Tk 95,574 crore in the social safety net programs in the proposed budget for 2020-21 fiscal, announced on Thursday. The allocation is 16.83 percent of the total budget and 3.01 percent of the total GDP.
In the revised budget for the fiscal of 2019-20, the allocation for this sector was Tk 81,865 crore.
We are welcoming this proposal of the Finance Minister to increase the allocation in the social safety net programs on behalf of ‘Nagad’, a financial service provider of the Postal Department. ‘Nagad’ believes that during the disaster of COVID -19 Finance Minister’s proposal shows the government’s pro-people attitude.
At the same time, we are proposing to the government to make it mandatory for the agencies to distribute these huge allocations only through mobile financial services from the current fiscal. In this case, as a public entity, ‘Nagad’ is always ready to provide all kinds of assistance to the government.
‘Nagad’ has played the leading role in disbursing process of the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Eid gift of Tk 2,500 to each distressed and helpless families who are affected by Corona pandemic. The Honorable Prime Minister’s gift to 5 million families has set a unique precedent where ‘Nagad’ played a tremendous role by disbursing PM’s gift to 1.7 million families smoothly. It is also a matter of pride for the government that a sister concern of the Postal Department has played an important role in the distribution of government allowances through its ‘Nagad’ initiative.
The finance minister has mentioned the issue in his budget speech also. The Finance Minister and the Ministry of Finance were kind enough and played very important role in the whole process. The ‘Nagad’ family is also thanking the Finance Minister and the Ministry of Finance for their part.
Honorable Finance Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal has also mentioned financial inclusion initiative as a part of the government’s digitization process in his budget speech.
In this case, our request to the government that MFS can play the biggest role in the digitization and financial inclusion. And since ‘Nagad’ is working with the state of the art technology, it is only possible for ‘Nagad’ to deliver government allowances/grants to the right person’s ‘Nagad’ account instantly without any hassle.
The government has already adopted Mobile Financial Services (MFS) for the distribution of grants or allowances in several sectors. And ‘Nagad’ is playing an important role everywhere also.
Managing Director of ‘Nagad’, Tanvir Ahmed Mishuk, said that ‘Nagad’ now became the first choice of the government in ensuring transparency and instant disbursement of the government allocations or grants.
Earlier this year, Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued a directive to distribute all government allowances through ‘Nagad’. According to the Prime Minister’s directive all government agencies have started disbursing their safety net allowances or grants through ‘Nagad’, which also helping the government to monitor or ensure their surveillance over the whole matter, Mishuk said.
Mishuk also hope that ‘Nagad’ will bridge the gap of the government’s allocation disbursement and the people in the future as well.
Mishuk thinks that if the grants from the social safety net programs are disbursed through MFS, it could contribute to the digitalization of the financial sector in one hand and the country’s socio-economic sector on the other.