bKash me!: Huawei deepens partnership with Bangladesh’s largest mobile payments operator to strengthen financial inclusion

In the country of Bangladesh, “bKash me!” has become synonymous with asking someone to send you money digitally, just as “Googling” became synonymous with online searching in the early 2000s. bKash, Bangladesh’s largest mobile payments provider, has become a mainstay in the country’s digital economy ecosystem, and currently serves more than 68 million users – or over one third of the population.

On Wednesday, 29th March 2023, Global ICT provider Huawei signed an agreement with bKash to deliver greater mobile financial services and drive financial inclusion for Bangladesh. 

Pan Junfeng, President, Huawei South Asia Region and CEO, Huawei Bangladesh, said that the agreement aims to “empower and enable more people in Bangladesh to seize the benefits of the digital economy for development,” at a press conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

As part of the agreements, the partners committed to further improve digital and financial inclusion in Bangladesh through smart fintech initiatives. Pan shared that Huawei is committed to supporting bKash with its best technologies to support more customers with superior services.

Pan highlighted that Huawei’s fintech solutions are currently used by over 400 million people to access mobile financial services in markets worldwide. Huawei has deployed its platform across more than 30 markets in Asia and Africa, he added, and is the top supplier of mobile financial solutions across the world.

Kamal Quadir, Founder and CEO of bKash, said that Huawei’s robust fintech solutions has enabled bKash to support their high transaction volumes and remain customer-centric. 

“At the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, we are working tirelessly towards a digital financial ecosystem and becoming a Smart Nation. The joint effort of bKash and Huawei aims at driving financial inclusion and eliminating poverty for SDGs with innovative solutions,” said Kamal.

Sarder M Asaduzzaman, Assistant Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme and Susan Vize, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Dhaka Office shared that these mobile financial services will be critical in driving financial inclusion and achieving the country’s sustainable development goals by 2030.

Huawei has partnered with bKash since 2017, providing hardware, software, and service solutions such as its mobile money fintech solution, an e-wallet service that enables users to transfer cash, pay bills, save money and link bank accounts.

When the company was launched in 2011, it enabled unbanked people in rural areas without access to smartphones to pay bills and send money. Now, it offers a host of mobile financial services such as savings, e-wallet services, and microlending, or “nano-loans”.