Nagad to disburse PM’s education assistance

From now on, Nagad will be the only mobile financial service provider disbursing allowances from the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust.

A tripartite agreement was signed at Bangladesh Secretariat among the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust, Bangladesh Postal Department, and Nagad on Sunday.

As per this agreement, Nagad Ltd will solely disburse financial assistance under this trust, reports a press release.

The signing ceremony was attended by Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, MP as chief guest.

State Minister for Education Shamsun Nahar, MP, and Secretary to Secondary and Higher Education Division Suleman Khan also attended the event.

Scheme Director (Joint Secretary) of PM’s Education Assistance Trust Mohammad Asadul Hoque and Director General (additional duty) of Postal Department Tarun Kanti Sikder were present too, among others.

Smriti Karmakar, managing director (additional secretary) of PM’s Education Assistance Trust, Md. Abu Taleb, director (Planning) of Bangladesh Postal Department and Md. Shafayet Alam, executive director of Nagad Ltd, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.

In 2010, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took up an initiative to form this trust to support students at various levels.

Since its inception, the trust has provided assistance in various educational fields and disbursed allowances to secondary and higher secondary level students.

Since 2016, the disbursal of assistance from the PM’s trust went digital. From that time until last year, a significant portion of such allowances was disbursed through Nagad, and other mobile MFS operators also performed the job.

With the current agreement, Nagad will now exclusively handle the distribution of these allowances.

Representing Nagad Ltd, executive director Md Shafayet Alam said: “As a partner of the government, we are working to deliver digital services to the country’s remotest parts. As part of this, Nagad is successfully disbursing allowances for 27 ministries. This time, we have been given the responsibility as the sole MFS for distributing allowances from the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust. We aim to live up to this trust that it has put in us.”

Nagad first began its disbursement activities with PM’s special assistance during the pandemic.

Subsequently, its transparency and success in distributing social safety net allowances and primary education stipends encouraged various ministries to choose Nagad.