Mobile wallet is an area where digital payments should be made in the country from the beginning. Following the efforts of wallets in digital payments, banks and recently the platform of NCHL, which has been widely discussed, has gained widespread use in digital payments.
Companies such as Khalti, IMEPay, Prabhu Pay, CellPay etc. came to influence the market in the field of digital payments, which started 12 years ago with the idea that you can pay utility bills from your mobile phone. These days, these wallets have brought many types of payment facilities along with utility bills.
According to the financial statements of the last financial year published by Nepal Rastra Bank, if we look at the payments made by mobile wallets, there is a growth rate of 25 percent every year. If we look at the number of transactions, it is even less at 22 percent.
In the June month of the last financial year 2077/78, they have traded up to 12.79 billion rupees. This is the highest paying month on record for that year.
This payment is 25 percent more than the June month of the previous year 2076/77. In June of that year, a payment of 10 billion 22 million rupees was made.
If we look at the growth of various means of digital payment, the progress made by the wallet is moderate. As the business of Connect IPS has increased by 363 percent in one year. Payments made through mobile banking increased by 291 percent and payments made through QR codes increased by 519 percent.
Is the 25 percent growth of wallets satisfactory in this environment of digital payments? We have put this question before the leading wallets of Nepal.
Chief Executive Officer of Iseva, Subas Sapkota, says that there was no increase in business as expected last year. ‘This is not the growth we want,’ he told Icity news, ‘there was a higher growth rate in the previous years.’
He says that although digital payments have increased overall, the contribution of wallets is not as much as it should be. Sapkota says that the increase in transaction limits and scope this year is a positive aspect for payment service providers.
Sapkota says that even now common consumers have the mindset that only small results can be transacted from their wallets. ‘All of us payment service providers should take action to get out of that mindset,’ he says.
Arvind Shah, the co-founder of Khalti, says that the current growth cannot be considered that bad. “I think it will be more than the previous year,” he said, “In this, we should look not only at the volume, but also at the number of transactions, active customers, etc.”
He thinks that the result from the wallet should not be seen only. He said that the ‘number of transactions’ is important as small amounts are paid from the wallet. As a big result like Connect IPS, there is no payment in the wallet.
“Even if the volume is low, the number of transactions is high,” he says, “You can’t just look at the volume.” Even though there are many people registered in the wallet, only 20 out of 100 people are active.
As said by Sah, although small amount of money is paid in the wallet and the number of transactions is significant, there is no increase in it either. This year, the growth rate of transaction number is 22 percent. This payment is less than the result.
In the month of June, which had the highest number of transactions last year, the transaction number was 1 crore 25 lakh 15 thousand. In the same month of the previous year, such transactions were 1 crore 1 lakh 79 thousand.
CellPay CEO Pawan Pradhan also said that there was no increase in business as expected. According to him, there has been a decrease in the business due to the reduction of the business limit.
Wallet transaction limit is lower than mobile banking and Connect IPS. For this, the payment service provider has spoken to the National Bank.
‘We have told Rashtra Bank that we have to increase the wallet transaction limit,’ CEO Pradhan said, ‘We have said that we will address that demand.’
In the monetary policy announced by Nepal Rastra Bank a few days ago, it has also arranged to increase the electronic payment limit and increase the range of payment service providers.
Similarly, Ashitosh Shah, CEO of Moru Digital Wallet, also said that the turnover did not increase as expected.
“Even though there is a place to be satisfied with the transaction through the wallet, the increase in the transaction was not as expected,” he said.
Sah said that they want customers to be able to do all transactions from the wallet, not just utility payments. He says that the National Bank has opened the door for that.
Also read : Is digital bank narrowing the future of mobile wallet ?
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