Bank Asia to ease payment channel for IT freelancers
Bank Asia has tied up with a New York-based online payment gateway service provider to help Bangladeshi freelancers receive their payments easily.
By opening a free account with Payoneer, the online payment gateway service provider, a freelancer can receive payment for IT services in his or her e-wallet and then transfer the funds to a local bank account for a cash-in.
Bank Asia will receive the transferred fund in its 'Nostro account' from Payoneer and then it will pay the amount to the recipient in Bangladesh.
The bank launched the service at a function in Dhaka yesterday.
An online payment gateway is an e-commerce application service that authorises or arranges the sending and receiving of money online from one place to another.
More than 2.5 lakh Bangladeshi freelancers directly involved in overseas services earned more than $214 million last fiscal year through different channels.
Addressing the ceremony, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman said the online payment gateway service plays an important role in bringing a small amount of foreign exchange earned against services provided by the freelancers.
“With a rapid development in the IT sector, data management will be the largest business segment in Bangla-desh in the coming days,” he said.
“Taking this into account, we have given the necessary directions to authorised dealers to seek help from the online payment gateway service providers to bring in foreign currency at low costs earned against the export of IT services,” he said.
The partnership between Bank Asia and Payoneer will ease the process of receiving payment for the freelancers, the central bank governor added.
A Rouf Chowdhury, chairman of Bank Asia, said freelancers in Bangladesh are facing problems in receiving their payments.
Bank Asia pioneered online payment of its kind in Bangladesh by setting up the strategic alliance with Payoneer, he added.
“Around $18 million will be channelled through Payoneer annually and the figure will be much more in the coming years.”
Mehmood Husain, managing director of Bank Asia, expects that the bank's alliance will help Bangladeshis get payment quickly and easily.
Shamim Ahsan, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the ICT sector's contribution to gross domestic product will be 1 percent in the next five years.
“We want to create a $1 billion local market for ICT in the next five years,” he said, requesting the private commercial banks to approach the local IT companies for services.
Md Ahsan Ullah, executive director of Bangladesh Bank, and Scott H Galit, chief executive of Payoneer, also spoke at the function.
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