Foreign investors keen on Nagad, Jamaat MP tells BB governor

Barrister Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman, a newly elected lawmaker from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, held discussions with the central bank governor on bringing global investors to the mobile financial service provider Nagad.

Barrister Arman arrived at the Bangladesh Bank (BB) headquarters at around 11:00 am on Tuesday to meet senior officials, led by Governor Dr Ahsan H. Mansur.

Emerging from the meeting, Mr Arman told reporters that a multinational company operating on three continents had shown interest in investing in Nagad.

Acting as a local agent of the global firm, he said they met the BB governor seeking permission to conduct an audit of Nagad to assess the economic viability of the investment.

However, the governor informed them that there were plans to hand over Nagad's operations to private investors during the tenure of the interim government, which ended soon after the recently held general election.

"We don't know the actual position of the elected government regarding Nagad. Once we are informed, we will be able to share," the BB governor was quoted as saying.

"I am just playing the role of a local agent. It is the foreign investors who will invest and they will decide everything. The discussion is still at an initial stage," he said.

jubairfe1980@gmail.com