Agents and users of mobile financial service provider bKash have been facing trouble in money transfer for the last one week.

They even do not know what is going wrong with the service.

bKash, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, however, said a system upgrade has caused temporary disruptions in some areas.

“We're carrying out maintenance work that has created temporary sufferings,” Kamal Quadir, chief executive officer of bKash, said yesterday.

“I talked to distributors. The problem is not alarming,” said Quadir. bKash made 70,000 transactions in last two days, almost similar to the number of usual transactions, he said.

He expected a fair solution to the problem by last night and a full recovery in next 4-5 days.

Quadir, however, claimed 95 percent of the users are getting bKash services properly.

But the field-level situation is different.

“We have been facing serious trouble in making payments and transferring money for the last one week. We've heard bKash's server cannot take the load,” said Mohammad Shahin, who runs an outlet as a bKash agent in Gulshan.

Shahin said he used to make 400-500 transactions a day, but the number has come down to 30-35 in the past few days.

“A girl has been trying to send money to her parents for the last few days, but failed,” he said.

Firoz, another agent in the same area, also echoed the same.

“The service was good when it was launched, but now transactions are being settled after a day or two,” said Firoz.

Sabuj Hossain, who is a bKash agent at Karwan Bazar in the city, said his mobile money transfer service was totally inactive yesterday as he could not make any transaction.

Abdullah, another agent at Karwan Bazar, also admitted such a disruption.

But these agents could not tell the users what the problem was, as they are not directly linked with bKash. Agents are appointed through distributors who maintain the link with bKash.

“We are facing trouble for the past eight days. The problem becomes acute during the daytime, but remains better at night (12-7am) when customer turnout is scarce,” said Sadequr Rahman, owner of Channel Enterprise, a distributor of bKash in Gulshan.

Rahman said bKash officials told them that it was a technical problem and will be solved soon.

Bangladesh's first mobile financial service provider bKash started its formal business in July 2011 with an aim to provide financial services through mobile phones to both the unbanked and banked people across the country.

A phone call or a text message can make payments and money transfers. Customers are able to receive electronic money into their bKash accounts through salary, loan, domestic remittance, and other disbursements. They also can cash out the electronic money at any of the hundreds of agents assigned by bKash.

Now bKash has 15,000 agents and five lakh registered users across the country.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/20-Sep-12