Underlining that Bangladesh’s readymade (RMG) sector has embraced digital payments in a big way, an article written by Director of Better Work Dan Rees and Country Director Bangladesh of International Labour Organization (ILO) Tuomo Poutiainen and published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on its website recently maintained that Harvard Business Review has, reportedly, maintained that Bangladesh has the potential to digitalise rapidly for post-pandemic recovery as well as longer term transformation towards advancing the SDGs or the Sustainable Development Goals.
This was maintained in various media reports that carried the write-up subsequently in their respective publications, which underlined that as the logical next step, Bangladesh apparel sector has now embraced digital payments in a big way and in the wake of the pandemic, there has been an urgency to ensure that digital wage payments can be made to a maximum number of workers even as the previous investments made in and promotion of digital payment technology have now become of enormous value and went on to add that digital wage payments generally help workers, not only to have better control over their wages and access other financial services, but also to help ensure that they receive correct and timely remuneration and benefits.
Further, adding that the benefits of digital payment go beyond the amount of money involved – which is why both employers’ and workers’ organisations have been moving to cashless wage payments and digitalisation of payrolls for some time, the article underlined that digital wage payments enable companies to minimise human interactions during financial transactions even as digital payments also help address health concerns, reduce travel and have kept markets and other commercial establishments less crowded and went on to add the recipients of digital money, in turn, spent more through digital means while underlining that they also increased their savings and ability to cope with unanticipated economic shocks.
The writers also maintained that a recent research paper from the World Bank (2020) found that in Bangladesh, paying garment factory workers’ wages digitally gradually leads to increased account use and savings, and greater financial capability while adding that given that a majority of apparel workers are women, digital payments put more financial power in their hands even as this trend appears to offer women workers a greater say in family decision-making, which can result in benefits to mental health and self-esteem even as digital wage payments have benefited companies’ payroll services by decreasing staff time for payroll-related admin and finance functions by 53 per cent.
