Access to online payment sees a boost

Kathmandu, Apr. 17

Access to online payment system and its usage witnessed a significant progress from mid-February to mid-March this year with a growth of Rs. 37 billion payment through ConnectIPS gateway in a month.

ConnectIPS witnessed a growth in terms of transaction and amount paid.

From mid-January to mid-February Rs. 236.42 billion was transacted via ConnectIPS which increased to Rs. 273.85 billion in mid-February to mid-March, states the latest report published by the Nepal Rastra Bank’s Payment Systems Department. Its users increased to 3.14 million to 3.33 million in a month’s period. By mid-March there were about 817,197 ConnectIPS users.

However, the amount transacted through the ConnectIPS in mid-February was decreased compared to mid-September to mid-October in 2021 when Rs. 239.14 billion was paid via its app.

Likewise, there was the growth of 364,000 users of wallet and Rs. 2 billion in payment through it in a month. About 11.01 million wallet users had paid Rs. 14.53 billion in mid-January to mid-February while about 11.35 million users made the payment of Rs. 16.6 billion.

Number of QR-based payments has crossed 23 million, however, payment through it is small – just Rs. 7.7 billion. There is a slow growth in QR-payments as Rs. 6.09 billion was paid through it five months ago.

Similarly, transaction amount through the use of debit and credit cards, prepaid cards, internet and mobile banking and point of sales also witnessed a significant increase. For example, Rs. 107.1 billion was paid via mobile banking by mid-March against Rs. 92.7 billion by mid-February, states the NRB.

There are 16.8 million mobile banking and 1.6 million internet banking customers, 11,488 payment service providers (PSPs), while 10.2 million debit cards and 219,946 credit cards are issued.

After the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the central bank had launched a nation-wide campaign to promote QR-based payments in business from groceries to service industry.

Meanwhile, the NRB has started studying the possibility of using the digital currency to replace the currency. It is analysing the opportunities and challenges of using services related to cloud technology. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 18 April 2022.