Money transferring through post offices sees a good start
The postal department saw a good response from clients in the first one month of working as the principal agent of Western Union in Bangladesh.
The department started the service from July 13 this year. It is now operating special counters in 12 post offices in the city and 438 others throughout the country so that people can easily collect remittances sent from abroad.
The post offices that are operating as Western Union points in the capital are Dhaka General Post Office (GPO) and post offices at Sadarghat, New Market, Mohammadpur, Gulshan, Banani, Basabo, Tejgaon, Shantinagar, Khilgaon and Uttara.
According to GPO sources, they are receiving around 5 to 10 clients of Western Union in their counter every day.
When the postal department announced its collaboration with Western Union in January, a good number of people expressed scepticism about the department’s ability to maintain the quality of service.
The postal department signed an agreement in January with the Western Union to deliver money transferred by the global money transferring company as part of a reform programme to help the financially ailing department reach break-even point by 2009.
The designated postal offices will run the special money transferring desks for the next 5 years. Usual fees are collected by the Western Union while the postal department receives 25 percent commission from the money-transferring organisation.
The postal department saw a good response from clients in the first one month of working as the principal agent of Western Union in Bangladesh.
The department started the service from July 13 this year. It is now operating special counters in 12 post offices in the city and 438 others throughout the country so that people can easily collect remittances sent from abroad.
The post offices that are operating as Western Union points in the capital are Dhaka General Post Office (GPO) and post offices at Sadarghat, New Market, Mohammadpur, Gulshan, Banani, Basabo, Tejgaon, Shantinagar, Khilgaon and Uttara.
According to GPO sources, they are receiving around 5 to 10 clients of Western Union in their counter every day.
When the postal department announced its collaboration with Western Union in January, a good number of people expressed scepticism about the department’s ability to maintain the quality of service.
However, clients are satisfied with the service.
According to sources at the GPO, the postal department is currently operating 450 Western Union money-receiving points in its post offices throughout the country.
“Some of these counters are operating with computers while others are working with fax machines as Internet connection was not feasible,” explained an official at GPO. “Things are of course much easier for the staff at counters with computers as they have direct access to the server and can directly get the money receipt for the recipient,” she said.
The postal department signed an agreement in January with the Western Union to deliver money transferred by the global money transferring company as part of a reform programme to help the financially ailing department reach break-even point by 2009.
“It has been barely a month since we started the money-transferring operations. But the response we received from the general people has been really positive,” said Jasmin Akter, deputy postmaster general of the Foreign Post Office department.
The designated postal offices will run the special money transferring desks for the next 5 years. Usual fees are collected by the Western Union while the postal department receives 25 percent commission from the money-transferring organisation.
