Staff Reporter Dhaka : Financial wellness platform Wagely and bKash will provide Earned Wage Access (EWA) service to the garment workers who have been receiving salary and allowances using bKash’s payroll solution.

As a result, employees will be benefitted in their emergencies by availing earned wages in advance through their bKash account.

In this regard, bKash and Wagely have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at bKash’s head office in the city recently. Ali Ahmmed, Chief Commercial Officer of bKash and Tobias Fischer, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Wagely were present at the signing ceremony. Amrita Vir, Head of Strategy and Acting Country Head; Sagir Ahmed Robin, Head of Channel Partnerships of Wagely and A.T.M Mahbub Alam, Head of Payroll Business of bKash were also present at the event.

As the pioneer in Earned Wage Access (EWA) in Bangladesh, Wagely’s key goal is to create an inclusive financial well-being platform for the workers by facilitating access to earned wages. It is also contributing to reduce labor migration, improve productivity and increase savings of the workers. As a result of this joint initiative, workers receiving salary and allowances through bKash can easily avail this service.

Currently, around 1000 factories are now disbursing salaries and allowances to their employees and workers through bKash. Not only disbursing salary, bKash is also working on building a sustainable ecosystem for RMG sector. As a result, workers are being able to manage their finances better by utilizing the salary received through bKash.

As part of it, bKash has already set up fair price shop ‘Sulov Bazaar’ and ‘Bansai Bazar Sodai’ at the factory premises where workers can buy daily essentials through bKash payment as well as avail special discounts. It is also working on installing sanitary napkin vending machines for the female workers in the factories. Besides, bKash has been conducting researches and training programs in association with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) to make the workers aware about their financial management. bKash is also developing its merchant network in and around the labor-intensive areas to facilitate bKash payment for purchasing daily essentials.

In addition, bKash provides special care to the workers by setting up customer care centers in labor-intensive areas and also facilitates services like instant digital nano loan and savings from banks and NBFI for the customers who are currently registered through e-KYC.