Remittance through bKash surges in April

Despite a sluggish trend in remittance inflow through regular channels during the Covid-19 outbreak, the outlay of remittance sent by Bangladeshi expatriates through online or wallet based money transfer services has exponentially increased this time.

In April, the expatriates sent remittances worth over Tk1 billion to their family members or relatives through bKash via selected banking channels.

The amount in March was only Tk270 million, said a media statement issued on Tuesday.

Due to the lockdown almost in all countries of the world for preventing the pandemic, the expatriates are staying at home and relying on online or wallet based money transfer services for sending remittances to their beloved ones.

Expatriates prefer online-to-wallet money transfer or services like bKash to send small amount of remittances to their families, the media statement said.

The number of remittances sent through bKash in the last month was over 92,000. On an average, the amount of remittance sent by each expatriate was around Tk11500.

Currently, bKash is offering international remittance services from 93 countries in partnership with six different local commercial banks under the strict guidance of the Bangladesh Bank.

In this regard, relatives of expatriates in Bangladesh do not need to go to any bank to get money. Instead, they can get the remittance from home and enjoy the cash out, send money, pay bill, make payment, mobile recharge and other bKash services maintaining social distance.

According to the media statement, most of the remittances in bKash come from Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Middle East, Europe and UK.

Due to the strategic partnerships with wallet based service companies like Valyou, Hanpass or Gmoney, the Bangladeshi people living in these countries are being able to send money to their relatives' bKash accounts within a few minutes from their mobile wallets.

Even in this crisis period, bKash is well positioned to partner with world's top 34 money transfer companies, including WorldRemit, TransferWise, Ria, Gulf Exchange, BFC (Bahrain Financing Company), Brac Saajan, CBL Money transfer, Agrani Exchange and NBL Exchange.

As a result, the simple gateway of sending money to the relatives from these countries is open.

At this particular time, remittance inflow through bKash from the UK, Australia, Canada, the US and the entire Europe has increased exponentially via International money transfer organisations like WorldRemit and TransferWise.

Meanwhile, the government's 2% incentive on remittance is encouraging expatriates to send remittances via mobile banking channels in this difficult situation.

The international remittance service through bKash via banking channel was launched in December 2017.