Nepal Telecom Gets Approval From NRB to Operate Mobile Money Service

Nepal Telecom’s subsidiary company has finally received approval from Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Nepal Digital Payment Company is a joint venture of Nepal Telecom (NTC) and Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB). NT can now officially launch the mobile money service, which may perhaps take place after a month.  

After setting up the necessary infrastructure, the company sent an application to NRB requesting a license in January 2021. After monitoring the overall system of the company, NRB has approved the request application. 

Mobile money service linked with Mobile number 

The company will use Nepal Telecom’s mobile number as a digital wallet. According to Rastra Bank, the company can now operate like other mobile wallet companies. 

It means that the customer can use the balance left in the mobile SIM for digital transactions. However, the mobile payment fund will remain in a different account than the mobile balance.

This option makes mobile money cheaper since recharge includes tax. The only difference is that the mobile wallet service is used by linking the service with the NT SIM number. This mobile money service also enables USSD based payment. 

USSD is the code we use for several functions like checking mobile balance, subscribing data packs, transfer balance, etc. It can also be used for offline payments like that from SMS. Moreover, it is much more secure and faster than SMS. You can directly pay using *…# code from a smartphone as well as a feature phone. This kind of USSD service will be the first of its kind in Nepal, and its use may rapidly increase to wider customers in a short time. 

Checkout: Top Digital Payment Wallet/Services in Nepal

Mobile money service for greater mass 

Since it can be used offline, it is suitable for people in remote areas where there is no internet connection. Even people in rural areas can use a banking wallet to transfer money, pay electricity bills, water, telephone bills, and pay government revenue. 

This service operates conveniently on a smartphone, but the Ntc payment users can now also use feature phones to perform transactions easily. According to statistics, there are around 20 million NT sim users in Nepal. So, this service encourages mobile banking in a large community collectively. 

What are your thoughts on the license/permission granted by NRB to Nepal Telecom to operate a mobile money service? Tell us in the comment section below.