The country’s mobile phone operators and e-commerce business on Tuesday demanded equal business opportunity in the field of mobile financial service from their respective roles.
The MFS in the country is at an early stage and finalising the correct approach for the service is crucial for the future, they said in a session on the second day of the three-day Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation conference being held in Dhaka.
They also said security of the MFS was a concern which also needed proper attention without harming the business of the operators.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services president Shameem Ahsan said, ‘Globally m-commerce service providers are providing the mobile financial service but we are still debating about which approach we should take for the MFS.’
‘Although we are running a bank-led model, there are so many debates about the issue as mobile operators are integral part of the service,’ he said.
‘There should be a level-playing field for all the service providers and they should get equal business opportunities from their respective roles,’ Shameem said while speaking in a panel discussion at CTO conference at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel.
Banglalink chief executive officer Ziad Shatara said the mobile operators wanted to get more engaged with the MFS as the network platform and distribution channel used for the service was provided by the telcos.
‘The MFS is still at an early stage and mobile operators should be more engaged with the process because of their contribution,’ he said.
bKash chief executive officer Kamal Quadir said the widespread concern about the security of MFS could not be ignored.
‘But all such MFS securities issues are not related to bKash,’ he said while replying to a question about how the MFS providers were ensuring the security.
Quadir also said bKash had learnt a lot about the MFS from Kenyan model where such service was a huge success.
Communication Authority of Kenya’s director Wilbart Kipsang, however, said that there was a similar problem in Kenya that what kind of MFS model they should follow. ‘But the banks and the mobile operators never sat together to resolve the issue,’ he said.
Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Nazneen Sultana said the debate about whether the MFS should be a bank-led model or telco-led model had just started, ‘If the present bank-led model has any shortcoming, then we should talk about this with the related authorities.
The MFS is still a new concept in Bangladesh and such initial struggle is necessary for betterment of the service, she said while presiding over the session.
She also said as the central bank could only regulate the banks, not the telecom operators.
-With New Age input
