The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education is likely to appoint more than one mobile financial service (MFS) operators to disburse stipend among primary students in order to reduce hassles and cost of operations.
The decision was taken at 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 to the Ministry of Finance in the chair.
The decision came amid allegations of irregularities in stipend disbursement by a single MFS operator.
The primary education ministry has been disbursing more than Tk 1,800 crore in stipend every year to nearly 1.30 lakh students across the country under the project of Disbursement of Primary Education Stipend through Rupali Bank SureCash.
Allegations regarding stipend embezzlement by some agents of SureCash, higher cash-out fee and low number of agents in remote areas also prompted the ministry to appoint more MFS operators to disburse stipend, officials at primary education ministry said.
The meeting also discussed the proposal to introduce a flat rate for all operators having accounts with government’s banks, sources 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 quickly through our agents everywhere in the remote Bangladesh. This will reduce cost of charge and hassles of parents, said an official of bKash.
Prime minister sheikh Hasina inaugurated the project in 2017 to ensure smooth disbursement of stipend through digital channel.
Stipend fund disbursement through bank-led MFS operators is a significant change driven by the policy objective of increasing the efficiency of programme implementation through digitisation of government payments, leveraging the spread of MFS in Bangladesh over the past decade.
