People of Sagteng Gewog in Trashigang will no longer have to travel to Trashigang to avail themselves of banking services. With the launch of Bank of Bhutan(BoB) Connect Agency in Sagteng yesterday, people can do their banking transactions in their gewog only.
With Sagteng getting connected, all gewogs of Trashigang Dzongkhag are connected to banking services of BoB.
BoB Connect Agency is a banking service where the bank will appoint agents in the communities to provide banking services to the people. The agent will provide basic banking services such as deposits and withdrawals, BoB loan and NPPF loan repayments, fund transfer and electricity bill payment among others.
“Thinking of the benefits that people will enjoy, I thought of being BoB’s agent. It will be of great benefit to people of Sagteng since they will enjoy the banking services within our Gewog without having to travel outside,” said Pema Gyeltshen, an Agent of BoB.
“We are very happy to have a BoB agent here. From now onwards, we can deposit and withdraw our cash, and pay our electricity bills through our agent,” Tshering Choki, from Sagteng.
“Since we do not have bank in Sagteng it was very inconvenient for us. We faced certain challenges. Our children study in Thimphu, Paro, Phuentshogling and Pasakha, and even if we want to send money to our children, because of a lack of bank, we couldn’t. But with a BoB agent here, it will be convenient for us as well as our children,” added Dorji Wangdi, also from Sagteng.
“It will be convenient for people in Sagteng. We used to travel to Trashigang for transactions which are both expensive and time-consuming. Now with the opening of an agency here, people can deposit and withdraw their money from here,” shared Sangay Dorji, the Sagteng Gup.
“Slowly based on people’s trust and confidence, we are thinking that maybe we need to roll out and start accepting loan applications through those agents. But for that we feel, we really need to educate our BoB Connect agents in terms of process on how and what kind of people we should focus on providing the loans and then the quality of loans that they will avail,” said Dorji Kadin, the CEO of Bank of Bhutan.
He added, the bank slowly plans to penetrate the service to Chiwogs and villages.
Today there are twenty-six BoB Connect agents in Trashigang and two hundred seventy-six BoB agents across the country.
Pema Seldon Tshering
