Sarathi Signs MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Nagad

Entrepreneurial ecosystems
17.07.2022
‘Sarathi: Improving Financial Health’ signed an MoU with Nagad to promote and integrate digital financial services, especially digital transactions, into the daily lives of 17,400 RMG workers and their community members.

Sarathi: Improving Financial Health, a financial inclusion project co-funded by Swisscontact Bangladesh and MetLife Foundation, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nagad, a mobile financial service provider (MFSP) of the Bangladesh Post Office. The objective is to introduce digital financial services, especially digital transactions, to 17,400 ready-made garments (RMG) workers and their community members and increase their digital literacy through promotional activities within 20 October 2022. Gradually they also intend to incorporate other digital financial services such as bill payment, educational fees payment, mobile top-ups, etc. into their daily lives with support from local merchants, educational institutions, etc.

The MoU was signed by Mujibul Hasan (Cezanne), Country Director of Swisscontact Bangladesh and Rahel Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nagad, in presence of Sarathi team and Nagad representatives, at the head office of Nagad on 24 May 2022.
"Nagad is very proud to be involved in this initiative to bring people like RMG workers, who are still lagging behind in the use of digital financial transactions, under the ambit of contemporary traditional and digital financial services. Our goal is to financially include more people who are currently deprived of the financial facilities and provide them efficient financial services."
Rahel Ahmed, CEO Nagad

The Sarathi project is financed by the MetLife Foundation. It is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA. 

2016 - 2023
Bangladesh
Continuing Vocational Education and Training
Sarathi 
Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporter, with the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector accounting for over 83% of the country’s exports and contributing approximately 16% to the GDP. The garment industry consists of more than 4,000 RMG factories and employs between four to five million workers of which almost 60% are women. Even though RMG the sector plays such a pivotal role in the economy of Bangladesh, only 34% of it was included in the formal financial system in 2016 when Swisscontact started to work towards the financial inclusion of RMG workers and their community members.