MFS for freedom

Kaniz could never have guessed that her own financial freedom would start with a mobile phone. A year on, there are a total of four bKash accounts in her household and her family has embraced all that mobile money has to offer

Kaniz Fatema takes her 7-year old brother Rifat to school each day in Rajshahi’s Birostail village. Her businessman father bought her a smartphone when she passed her higher secondary school exams. Kaniz was the first to open a mobile wallet in her family when BRAC made school payments through bKash compulsory. She discovered further usefulness of bKash while still in college when she used to go for private tuition after sundown. The mobile wallet proved to be a safe store for her money, as Kaniz paid her tutor through bKash.

She could never have guessed that her own financial freedom would start with a mobile phone. A year on, there are a total of four bKash accounts in her household and her family has embraced all that mobile money has to offer. Fatema thinks she can do more with bKash in future. “bKash is introducing new features regularly. People also pay utility bills from their mobile wallets. I think there is a lot more to do,” she said when asked if she would do more with mobile money.