The government is set to distribute the stipend and allowances for accessories among 1.30 crore primary school students through the postal department’s digital financial service Nagad, signed an agreement on Sunday, would be the biggest-ever initiative of its kind in the world by students’ number.
The Department of Primary Education (DPE) signed a tripartite agreement with Bangladesh Postal Department and Third Wave Technology Limited to eliminate the hassles that the students and their guardians have been facing in receiving the funds in the last few years.
Alamgir Muhammad Mansurul Alam, Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education, Md. Siraz Uddin, Director General (additional charge) of the Bangladesh Postal Department, and Md. Shafayet Alam, Executive Director of Nagad, inked the agreement at a ceremony at the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education at the secretariat.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar attended the programme virtually. Md. Zakir Hossen, State Minister for Primary and Mass Education; Md. Afzal Hossain, Posts and Telecommunications secretary; Golam Md Hashibul Alam, secretary of the Primary and Mass Education Ministry; and Tanvir A Mishuk, Managing Director of Nagad, were present in the meeting among others.
Nagad will ensure the distribution of the stipend among the primary school students and the initiative would bring down the government expenditure on disbursing the funds by a third. Nagad will start distributing the stipends as soon as it receives the list of beneficiary students from the government.
Following an instruction from the Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently, the Department of Primary Education selected Nagad for the distribution of the stipends.
The government introduced the stipends for the primary school students a few years ago and from that time, the government had to spend a total of Tk 21.50 per thousand in cash-out charges and data management. In order to avail the service from state-run service Nagad, the government will have to spend only Tk 7.50 for every thousand. Besides, the recipients will get the full amount of cash-out charges from Nagad along with the stipend and allowances amount.
Marking the deal Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said “Since its inception, Nagad has been ensuring affordable services for the people. I am glad to know that Nagad has associated itself with the noble stipend programme rolled out by the government as part of its efforts to prevent dropouts among the primary students. I hope that Nagad will play a role in the social and economic progress of the country by getting involved in this type of initiatives.”
State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md. Zakir Hossain said, “In on one hand, Nagad is an organisation owned by the postal department and on the other hand, it will save us a lot of money. So, there can be no reason not to choose Nagad as our partner for the distribution process. We faced a lot of troubles while distributing the stipends through an operator over the last few years. But we see that the Nagad is doing excellent in distributing government allowances.
