bKash to disburse secondary school stipend

Mobile financial service provider bKash Limited has been awarded a contract in partnership with state-owned Agrani Bank to disburse stipend to secondary school students under the 'Secondary Education Stipend Programme (SESP, 2nd phase)' run by the Ministry of Education (MoE), said a statement.

Around 1.4 million students of 12,000 secondary schools across the country will receive the stipend in the nominated bKash accounts of their parents or guardians twice a year.

Agrani Bank recently signed an agreement SESP, the largest stipend project under the MoE, aiming to reduce the school-dropouts.

Director General of Secondary Education Stipend Program (SESP) Professor Md. Mahbubur Rahman and Deputy Managing Director of Agrani Bank ltd Md. Yusuf Ali signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Project Director of SESP Shair Mortuza Mamun, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Agrani Bank Mohammad Shams-Ul-Islam and Chief Executive Officer of bKash Limited Kamal Quadir were present at the signing ceremony.

Earlier, Agrani Bank in partnership with bKash won a bid called by the SESP to disburse the stipend to the students.

bKash CEO Kamal Quadir said the students will be able to cash out the stipend money from any of the 180,000 bKash agent-points across the country, which are open late at night or also on the weekends.

He noted that the disbursement through bKash will be a convenient, hassle-free and cost saving solution to the beneficiaries as they do not need to go to any bank branches to receive the stipend money. It will also raise awareness about the digital financial services among the students.