Nagad, a mobile financial service of Bangladesh Postal Department, has scooped the “Posts and Telecommunications Award 2023” for its outstanding contribution to digital innovations in Bangladesh’s mobile financial service industry.  

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar handed over the award to Muhammad Solaiman, director of Corporate Communications at Nagad, and Muhammad Zahidul Islam, head of Public Communications at Nagad, at the Digital Bangladesh Mela 2023 – an expo aimed at showcasing IT and IT enabled services (ITES) products and services in Bangladesh, held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Saturday (28 January). 

At the award-giving ceremony, Chief Guest Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said, “Nagad has brought about a revolution in the mobile financial market through many customer-friendly innovations, especially its easy account opening process through e-KYC on smartphone or by simply dialling *167# on basic phones.” 

“This mobile money service of the Postal Department has shown the innovative power that we are talking about. That is why we have honoured it,” he noted.

After receiving the award Muhammad Solaiman, director of Corporate Communications at Nagad, said, “Winning any award is a matter of great pride. It also is an achievement for the entire country. Nagad always wants to stay beside people with new customer-centric innovations and affordable services.”

 “On behalf of the Nagad family, I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Posts and Telecommunications Division for recognising our work towards making people’s daily life easy,” he added. 

Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Abu Hena Morshed Zaman presided over the concluding ceremony of the three-day “Digital Bangladesh Mela 2023”, while BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder and Rezwan Ahamed Taufiq, MP, and member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry, were present at the event as special guests.

Alongside stalls of different organisations, there was an attractive stall of Nagad at the fair. People of different strata thronged the stall and enquired about different features and services of Nagad. What really attracted many visitors was an opportunity to play VR football game there.  

The Posts and Telecommunications Division introduced the Posts and Telecommunications Award 2023 this year for the first time. Nagad was conferred the award in recognition of its introduction of advanced technologies in improving MFS services. Nagad’s success highlights its continuous innovation and people-centric products and services only in four years of its journey. 

The state-owned MFS operator shaken up the entire financial market with its game-changing innovations, such as e-KYC and the digital KYC (*167#) systems, which allow the opening of an account instantly with ease without requiring any cumbersome paperwork. In this way, Nagad has brought many marginal people into the fold of financial inclusion. 

Many financial institutions have also adopted Nagad’s such simplified accounting opening process, which helped them cut costs of doing business to a great extent. 

Only in four years, Nagad has gained a customer base of more than 7 crore with its daily financial transactions reaching Tk 750 crore, thanks to its customer-friendly products and services. 

Besides, the state-owned mobile money carrier became a top VAT-paying company on the National Board of Revenue’s list just in three years. Nagad also won many local and international awards for its outstanding contribution to the expansion of Bangladesh’s financial market.