Bangladeshi expatriates living in different countries of the world will now be able to send money home in just five seconds through Blaze, the country’s first cross-border payment network.

Three organizations--Sonali Bank, HomePay HomePay, and ITCL--have taken the initiative to operate the Blaze service, creating a scope for the expatriates to send money home in five seconds -- 7/24.

Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy formally inaugurated the service as the chief guest through a virtual function chaired by Sonali Bank Limited chairman Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui.

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State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Bangladesh Bank’s deputy governor Ahmed Jamal, Sonali Bank Limited CEO & Managing Director Ataur Rahman Prodhan, ITCL MD & CEO Dr Kazi Saifuddin Munir and HomePay CEO Rubel Ahsan also spoke at the programme.

Addressing the programme, Sajeeb Wazed said the Awami League government’s next dream is to build a cashless society in the days to come. “Launching Blaze service is part of that dream.”

He said many people in the country do not have bank accounts as they completely depend on cash money. “But the cash money can be stolen and looted anytime. There’s also a  scope for corruption in cash transactions. When we'll move to a cashless society, the scope for corruption will be reduced.”

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Sajeeb said the government’s biggest earning source is the remittance. “Our wage earners send money to their family members every month either by banking or remittance centres. But they can avail of the bank services five days a week from 9am to 5pm and it takes some more days to reach the money home.  There’s no reason for having such a limitation during this digital era. That’s why we launched the Blaze service.”

He said the expatriates will be able to send money anytime any day within five seconds without going to any banking or remittance centre.  “Our dream is that all financial transactions in Bangladesh will be cashless. People will keep the money in their mobile phones and transfer it from there. This is the next step of Digital Bangladesh. Future Bangladesh will be cashless and fully digital and a developed one within 10-20 years.”

Sajeeb Wazed urged all the banks to get connected with the Blaze service so that the expatriates can send money to any bank in Bangladesh from anywhere without any hassle.

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He said the objective of digital Bangladesh is to develop the country and take it forward alongside improving and making people’s lives easier.  “We’ve been reaping the benefits of Digital Bangladesh over the 17 months of the Covid pandemic. As we have quickly adopted the digital governing system, Covid doesn’t have that much impact on our economy.”

He said they have already made huge progress in materialising the government’s dream of building a cashless society. “Around 10 crore people were connected to our mobile financial wallet during the Covid period.  We have also made an interoperable Digital Transaction Platform and it will be launched by 2021 for ensuring transparency and mobility in financial transactions.”

Palak said the country has produced huge skilled manpower alongside creating employment scopes through implementing the government’s Digital Bangladesh vision. “We’re now exporting one billion dollars through the ICT sector.”

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