Retired school teacher Sadekul Islam is too happy to get the opportunity of paying electricity bills through mobile financial service from his resident.

Sadekul, has been living in his own house at the city's Rampura-Banasree.

Until recently the 67-year-old man had to depend on his home security guard to pay utility bills to avoid standing in a long queue outside a specific bank branch.

Sometimes the security guard made mistakes in bills payment as he was illiterate.

But Sadekul's real trouble began when the guard left the job during the early wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

This, however, led the aging man to learn from a relative how to pay bills through mobile phone services.

Since then he has been happily using the mobile financial service (MFS) to pay utility bills, mobile flexi load, sending money to relatives and receiving, making servant's dues payment, purchasing medicine and other necessary commodities etc.

During the pandemic , the MFS brought great opportunities for Sadekul, who was able to bring money in his MFS account from banks' accounts and make payment of necessary bills without any one's assistance.

"Never before had I thought that life would be so comfortable. It's so easy to pay the bills through my mobile phone," said Sadekul, looking relaxed.

Rubina Akter (26), a garments factory worker in Ashulia, has also a similar story of life being made easy by the MFS.

"Earlier I had worry much about how to send money to mother back home," said Rubina. "Now I send the money through my mobile phone. The money reaches in just minutes."

She is now getting a salary at her MFS account. Before that she has to spend too much time in the queue for receiving salary and other allowances.

Rubayet Ferdous, owner of a garments factory of Ashulia, told UNB that MFS and digital money transferring system have brought a revolutionary change in workers' salary payment.

Before the system came, they had to use trucks along with police scouts for carrying cash to pay the monthly salary of several thousands of workers.

Applauding the MFS and digital payment systems, Ferdous said the industrial sector has got relief from a severe hazard of cash money handling, which is now happening within a moment only.

According to Bangladesh Bank (BB), the use of mobile financial service (MFS) has gained momentum in Bangladesh and monthly transactions would cross Tk 1.0 trillion (1 lakh crore) soon.

Experts and sector insiders have said the number of transactions in MFS in the country is increasing with the number of customers due to the convenience of instant payment for purchasing and sending money anywhere in the country.

The BB data shows that Mobile Banking transactions increased by Tk. 2210.8 crore or 3.11 percent to Tk. 73393.3 crore in January 2022 as compared to December 2021. During Jul2021-January2022 Mobile Banking transactions increased by Tk 99663.3 crore or 26.63 percent compared to the same period of the last year.

Earlier in May, 2021, Tk 71,247 crore had been transferred through the MFS, which was the highest transition till the last eight months. In December 2021, the transition was made the 3rd record of Tk 71,182 crore.

Former BB governor Dr Atiur Rahman told UNB that monthly mobile banking transactions would cross Tk 1.0 trillion if the current policy support continues.

Dr Atiur, also a pioneer of mobile banking, said this service creates a huge amount of consumption at the macroeconomic level in the country.

Md. Serajul Islam, executive director and BB spokesperson said the central bank is giving priority to build cashless inclusive financial system, where mobile banking is playing vital role.

The BB would continue policy support to expand easy transaction systems like mobile banking and mobile financial service, he said.