Chea Serey, assistant governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said on February 20 that the Bakong system, a blockchain-based inter-bank mobile payment platform, now has more than 8.5 million accounts. This is a sign that digital payments in Cambodia are getting better.
Serey said at an event that 8.5 million accounts “have been using” Bakong e-wallets. Of these, about 0.5 million are direct users and eight million are indirect users. “Bakong isn’t just a way to pay; customers can also use it to track their health,” she said.
As of September, more than half a million customers had used the Bakong system to make transactions worth $1.2 billion, and both direct and indirect transactions added up to two million, she said.
Nikkei Asia, on the other hand, said that 7.9 million Cambodians were using Bakong directly or through apps provided by partner lenders by November. This was due to partnerships between the NBC and local banks to operate Bakong and encourage more people to use it.
The financial newspaper said that as of November, 6.8 million transactions worth about $2.9 billion had been made through Bakong since it began.
In October of 2020, the NBC officially launched the Bakong system.
Nikkei announced on January 4, 2022, that Bakong had won one of the 2021 Nikkei Superior Products and Services Awards for Excellence “for its innovative technology and impact on the country’s economic and social development.”
Photos: https://www.facebook.com/bakongsystem
Also read: http://thebettercambodia.com/bakong-the-next-generation-payment-system-in-cambodia
Source: The PhnomPenh Post
