Economic Reporter :
The government is considering a plan to employ more than one mobile financial service (MFS) operators to disburse stipend funds among primary students across the country at competitive rates in order to reduce hassles and cost of operations.
A high level meeting of officials of primary education, industry experts and representatives of leading MFS operators held recently with Md Habibur Rahman, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Finance in the chair has decided to allow more operators instead of the existing single one operator- Sure Cash following massive irregularities in stipend disbursement.
The primary education ministry has been disbursing more than 1800 crore stipend money every year to nearly 1.30 lakh students across the country under the project of Disbursement of Primary Education Stipend through Rupali Bank Sure Cash. After discussions, the meeting observed that fund disbursement through a single MFS operator -Sure Cash has created widespread criticism following some allegations from a number of mothers of students who didn’t receive stipend money properly.
The meeting also discussed the proposal to allow various MFS operators having accounts with government’s banks to disburse at a flat rate. However, the proposals are still pending for the approval of the ministry, sources said.
“The Education Ministry is actively considering the proposals and likely to allow more MFS operators to ensure transparency, increase efficiency and reduce hassles of students and their parents”, a senior ministry official said.
MFS operators like Nagad of Bangladesh post office, Rocket of Dutch Bangla Bank and bkash have expressed their willingness to disburse stipend funds at competitive rates.
“We are connected with government’s banks and can disburse stipend fund quickly through our agents everywhere in the remote Bangladesh. This will reduce cost of charge and hassles of parents, said an official of bKash, the country’s leading MFS player with millions of agents in every remote areas across the country. Under the ‘Secondary Education Stipend Program (SESP, 2nd phase)’ run by the Ministry of Education, he mentioned, bKash in partnership with state-owned Agrani Bank has been disbursing stipend to nearly 14 lakh students of 12,000 secondary schools across the country.
The government is considering a plan to employ more than one mobile financial service (MFS) operators to disburse stipend funds among primary students across the country at competitive rates in order to reduce hassles and cost of operations.
A high level meeting of officials of primary education, industry experts and representatives of leading MFS operators held recently with Md Habibur Rahman, Additional Secretary of Ministry of Finance in the chair has decided to allow more operators instead of the existing single one operator- Sure Cash following massive irregularities in stipend disbursement.
The primary education ministry has been disbursing more than 1800 crore stipend money every year to nearly 1.30 lakh students across the country under the project of Disbursement of Primary Education Stipend through Rupali Bank Sure Cash. After discussions, the meeting observed that fund disbursement through a single MFS operator -Sure Cash has created widespread criticism following some allegations from a number of mothers of students who didn’t receive stipend money properly.
The meeting also discussed the proposal to allow various MFS operators having accounts with government’s banks to disburse at a flat rate. However, the proposals are still pending for the approval of the ministry, sources said.
“The Education Ministry is actively considering the proposals and likely to allow more MFS operators to ensure transparency, increase efficiency and reduce hassles of students and their parents”, a senior ministry official said.
MFS operators like Nagad of Bangladesh post office, Rocket of Dutch Bangla Bank and bkash have expressed their willingness to disburse stipend funds at competitive rates.
“We are connected with government’s banks and can disburse stipend fund quickly through our agents everywhere in the remote Bangladesh. This will reduce cost of charge and hassles of parents, said an official of bKash, the country’s leading MFS player with millions of agents in every remote areas across the country. Under the ‘Secondary Education Stipend Program (SESP, 2nd phase)’ run by the Ministry of Education, he mentioned, bKash in partnership with state-owned Agrani Bank has been disbursing stipend to nearly 14 lakh students of 12,000 secondary schools across the country.
