Digital Desk: NPCI International Payments, the international branch of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is poised to launch India's flagship payment platform Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Nepal to support interoperable real-time P2P and merchant payment transactions.
It will also allow Nepal and India to send real-time cross-border P2P remittances. In addition, Nepal is the first country outside of India to use the Universal Payments Interface (UPI).
In a statement, NPCI said, "Nepal would be the first country outside of India to use UPI as the payments platform, accelerating the digitization of cash transactions and achieving the vision and objectives of the Nepal Government and Nepal Rastra Bank as the Central bank."
NPIL has partnered with Gateway Payments Service, Nepal's authorized payment system operators, and Manam Infotech to install UPI in Nepal.
GPS is the authorized payment system operator in Nepal, and Manam Infotech will implement the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
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 nation.
According to Rajesh Prasad Manandhar, CEO of GPS, the UPI service has had a huge positive impact on India's digital payment development.
"We expect UPI in Nepal to play a critical role in modernizing the country's new economy and realizing the nation's notion of evolving a cashless society," he stated.
Nepal's population is around 30 million (3 crores), with about 45 percent of the population banked. Moreover, according to NPCI, Nepal has a mobile penetration rate of over 135%, with 65 percent owning a smartphone. This gives a solid foundation for the digital revolution in India to be reproduced in Nepal.
In the coming months, the three firms will collaborate closely to bring UPI to Nepal, complete with all the functionality and features now accessible in India.
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