Private investors will hold a 49 per cent stake in Nagad Ltd and the postal department the rest as the government looks to run the mobile financial service as a subsidiary, its top executive said yesterday.

The postal department owns 100 per cent of the shares of Nagad at the moment.

Under a planned new ownership structure, private companies will collectively own 49 per cent shares of Nagad, and the rest will be controlled by the postal department, said Tanvir A Mishuk, managing director of Nagad.

He disclosed this at a discussion with reporters at The Westin Dhaka yesterday.

Third Wave Technologies has been giving technological and logistics supports to the postal division since March 2019, when it rolled out the service commercially.

The private company now enjoys 49 per cent of the total revenues in exchange for providing technological supports. But it does not own any share at the moment.

Third Wave Technologies has recently been renamed Nagad Ltd, which will operate as a subsidiary of the postal department.

Mishuk also said Bangladesh's financial industry needs investment from global tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google.

"We are in talks with one of the global tech giants. We have completed primary discussions. Due diligence has been completed. We will declare the name of the tech giant once we get the final licence from the central bank."

Contacted, Md Siraz Uddin, director-general of the postal department, said they had not discussed anything with the tech giants.

"We don't know anything on the issue," he said.

In March last year, the central bank gave a no-objection certificate (NOC) to Nagad, asking it to take a final licence from it after following all rules and regulations.

But the central bank was forced to extend the time frame of the NOC by three months as the operator has failed to complete all the procedures. Nagad has been asked to complete the procedures by June.

Mishuk said the government was now amending the Post Office Act 1898 in order to take over 51 per cent shares of Nagad Ltd.

"The draft act is being vetted by the law ministry. We will be able to take the final licence from the central bank once the act is amended," he said.

He expressed hope that Nagad would manage the approval within the latest time frame set by the central bank.

When reporters drew attention to an advertisement broadcast by the company attacking another MFS entity, Rahel Ahmed, chief executive officer of Nagad, said they did not have any intention to attack anyone.

"Broadcasting the advertisement is just our marketing strategy," he said, adding that the MFS company would bring a new version of the advertisement soon.

The carrier is the second-largest MFS provider in Bangladesh after bKash. It has 3.75 crore customers, and Tk 400 crore is transacted through the platform every day on average.