eSewa Signs a Partnership Agreement with UKaid Sakchyam – Access to Finance

On August 14, 2019, eSewa Pvt. Ltd. and UKaid Sakchyam – Access to Finance signed an official agreement to design, develop and launch Cash Points. The partnership was announced with representatives from both parties signing and exchanging agreement certificates.

Access to financial services has been a persistent challenge present in the development front of Nepal. Large segment of Nepalese population do not have bank accounts, either because of lack of funds or because the financial institutions are situated too far. Also, in the case of financial emergencies, people seem to lean on informal sources of finances. These informal sources of finances tend to be more costly as well as riskier. Moreover, even though financial institutions are making plenty of efforts to reach rural areas through their own channels such as ATMs, Physical branches, etcetera, these are not cost-effective. Thus, Sakchyam Project aims to utilize eSewa Cash Points to provide financial services to banked as well as unbanked customers.

From eSewa Cash Points, customers will be able to deposit as well as receive payments from numerous banks and financial institutions of their choosing. With this, these cash points will help people indulge in even the smallest of financial transactions and will encourage savings. The main objectives of deploying eSewa cash point solutions are:

1. Identify and enroll Cash Points in priority districts (including existing and new Agents that will provide Cash Point facilities) 
2. Create a single interface that enables cash-in/cash-out to/from Bank and eSewa accounts  
3. Develop Cash Points as a hyperlocal financial hubs with added services like bill payments, remittance, ability to open bank accounts, information services, etc. 

With this project, the parties aim at expanding access to financial services to the unserved population of Nepal while also promoting greater use of innovate digital financial services among them.