Hashi Ara is one of BRAC’s 23,078 teachers who get salary directly in their mobile wallets. She was introduced to bKash about a year back. “I learned it within days. It was easy. I had been using mobile phones for three years but couldn’t use bKash before.” Asked why not, she said that there had been no one to show her. When BRAC began paying salary through bKash, Hashi Ara was able to learn everything from the project staff. With a husband who is a truck-helper and a toddler son, Hashi Ara was always worried about managing her family’s finances. Her brother sent money through informal channels because banks were daunting. But that also made her finances unpredictable.

Now with her mobile wallet, uncertainty has been removed from the equation. The 27-year old receives around BDT 20,000 in remittance from her brother in Singapore every month. Using her new smartphone, Hashi Ara is happy to experiment with the bKash app and realises that the potentials are endless. “I saw some stores with barcode payments. I think I’ll buy something with the app.”