Kathmandu: The mobile money to be brought jointly by Nepal Telecom and Rastriya Banijya Bank will be operational from this May.

Krishna Prasad Bhandari, Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Digital Payment Company (NDPC) informed The Rising Nepal that the facility will be able to do business using mobile balance even without internet and will come into operation from the first half of May at the most delay.

In a virtual program organized on Wednesday, CEO Bhandari said that technical work is being done for the operation of mobile money.

"There is a need to change the perception that digital means free of cost," he added.

According to CEO Bhandari, large capital investment is required for digitization so for reliability and sustainability it is not possible to make it completely free.

CEO Bhandari further suggested that the government should pay attention to the issue of providing discounts and facilities on the import of equipment to move digital finance forward at a faster pace.

Speaking on the occasion, Bikram Shrestha, President of Nepal Internet Foundation (NIF), said that quality internet would be the first condition for expanding digital financial access.

He said that policy support would also be important for infrastructure development.

“Due to the policy of Nepal Rastra Bank, the number of QR code users has reached more than two lakh in a short period of time,” he said. He said that even though it is not possible to make the entire transaction cashless, it is possible to reduce the use of cash.

Pointing out that the lack of apps in the Nepali language is creating problems, he stressed that attention should be paid to the creation of original content.

Shubhechcha Khadka, a human rights activist at the Informal Service Center (INSEC), said that the recent environment including COVID-19 has proved to be a stepping stone for promoting financial digitization in the country but the service providers should also bring out on the quality and accessibility of services.

Along with this, the geosocial environment should be taken into account as well.