BSFIC, bKash sign deal on farmers’ payment

Mobile financial service (MFS) provider bKash and Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) recently signed an agreement over payment services.

Chowdhury Ruhul Amin Kaiser, secretary to the BSFIC, and Ali Ahmmed, chief commercial officer of the MFS provider, inked the deal at a hotel in Dhaka, said a press release.

Under the agreement, around one lakh sugarcane farmers under the BSFIC will get their payment directly to their bKash accounts. Farmers can cash out the payment without any charge from any of the 330,000 agent points of bKash spread across the country. The corporation and bKash will bear the cash-out charges.

"With the agreement, we can pay sugarcane farmers conveniently as well as ensure transparency and accountability," said Zakia Sultana, secretary to the ministry of industries.

"We uphold farmers' satisfaction first, and I believe we will achieve it through bKash," said Md Arifur Rahman Apu, chairman of the BSFIC.

"Transparency and accountability of disbursement through bKash will be ensured. The BSFIC will get a clear idea how money is being disbursed, and how the farmers are getting it," said Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash.  

Senior officials of both the organisations were present.