Poor financial literacy, lack of awareness and limited infrastructures are some of the key challenges for widening digital wage ecosystem for the country's apparel workers, speakers at a summit on Wednesday said.
Keeping this in view, they suggested introducing more worker-friendly digital financial solutions for the workers so that they can adopt the changes.
The view came at a session of day-long 'Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit 2019' held at a city hotel organised by the Access to Information (a2i) programme with the support of Cabinet Division and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The session titled 'The importance of an inclusive digital ecosystem for scaling up wage digitization' was moderated by Maria May, senior program officer at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
General Manager at Payment System Department of Bangladesh Bank Md Mezbaul Haque, Managing Director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) Abul Kashem Md Shirin, President and Managing Director of Bank Asia Limited Arfan Ali, Chief Executive Officer of mobile financial service bKash Kamal Quadir, and Gap Inc Bangladesh's Senior Program Manager Tamanna Sarwar spoke at the session.
Ms Tamanna Sarwar said digital payment system offers many advantages for both the employers and workers with regard to saving time and energy.
"Cash payment involves risks of getting fake currency notes as well as carrying them," she said.
The adoption of complete digital wage payment will help rise productivity of an organisation, she added.
Arfan Ali said there should be digital booths of the banks in readymade garment (RMG) factories so that the workers can avail the banking services at ease.
He also said a dedicated digital outlet can also help the workers use other banking service like deposit and credit facility.
Abul Kashem Md Shirin said the DBBL has installed a good number of automated teller machines (ATMs) in some garment factories aiming to facilitate payments for the workers.
Md Mezbaul Haque mentioned the central bank has been regularly updating the rules and regulations regarding digital payment services aiming to ensure financial inclusion.
The central banker identified security, privacy and cost effectiveness of the service as some of the pressing issues.
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