New Delhi, India: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Thursday that Nepal will be the first country to embrace India’s UPI system, which will play a key role in revolutionizing the digital economy of the neighboring country.
To deliver the services in Nepal, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), NPCI’s international arm, has partnered with Gateway Payments Service (GPS) and Manam Infotech.
In Nepal, GPS is the authorized payment system operator, and Manam Infotech will implement the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) there.
According to NPCI, the collaboration will benefit Nepal’s greater digital public good by bolstering interoperable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions in the neighboring country.
“Nepal would be the first country outside of India to use UPI as a payments platform, enabling the digitalization of cash transactions and achieving the vision and objectives of the Nepal Government and Nepal Rastra Bank as the Central Bank,” the statement stated.
This collaboration will allow Nepalese last-mile consumers to benefit from an open, interoperable payment system that enables real-time financial transfers between bank accounts and merchant payments.
The UPI service, according to GPS CEO Rajesh Prasad Manandhar, has had a major positive impact on India’s digital payment industry.
“We expect UPI in Nepal to play a critical role in modernizing the country’s digital economy and realizing the country’s vision of becoming a cashless society,” he said.
In 2021, UPI will have facilitated 3,900 crore financial transactions worth USD 940 billion, which is almost 31% of India’s GDP.
“We are committed to changing payments at NIPL by bringing our dependable payment solutions to global markets and cooperating with local payment system operators. We are certain that this project will demonstrate NIPL’s technology skills and vision for worldwide expansion of our unique services “NIPL’s CEO, Ritesh Shukla, said in a statement.
According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI’s real-time payment system can boost Nepal’s financial inclusion effort while also expanding economic opportunities.
It would help modernise Nepal’s digital payment infrastructure and make digital payments more convenient for citizens.
“Manam has always been at the forefront of big digital transformations around the world,” said Naga Babu Ramineni, the company’s director.
“We believe this partnership will eliminate all barriers to payment transformation within Nepal and across the border, thereby transforming the regional economy.”
In India, UPI is one of the most popular real-time payment (RTP) systems, offering ease, safety, and security in P2P and P2M transactions.
The population of Nepal is projected to be around 30 million (3 crore), with about 45 percent of the population being banked. Nepal has a mobile penetration rate of over 135 percent, with 65 percent of the population possessing a smartphone, according to the NPCI. This establishes a solid framework for Nepal to duplicate India’s digital revolution.
The three companies will work together in the next months to introduce UPI to Nepal, replete with all of the functionality and features available in India. In a see-saw trade, the Sensex and Nifty both end lower; banking stocks play spoilsport.
As a globally focused subsidiary of NPCI, NIPL aims to foster close collaboration with foreign partners in areas such as UPI implementation, cross-border remittance, acceptance, and the use of indigenously produced technologies in digital payments. NCPI said. Multibagger stock turns 35 paise to Rs 209.85, delivers 59,857% return in less than 6 months