Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Digital wallets processed payments worth Rs 43.69 billion in the first month of fiscal year 2023/24 (mid-July to mid-August).
According to the Monthly Payment Systems Indicators Report for the first month of the current fiscal year, 24.25 million users completed 30.87 million transactions during the review period.
In the previous month (mid-June to mid-July), 23.61 million users conducted transactions worth Rs 38.14 billion.
Wallet transactions and users have increased significantly over the past year. According to the report, wallets processed payments worth Rs 21.91 billion in the first month of fiscal year 2022/23. Wallets recorded 22.20 million transactions from 19.54 million users during that review period.
The Nepal Rastra Bank has licensed 26 institutions to function as digital wallets. eSewa is the largest wallet company in the country both in terms of number of users and transactions processed. Khalti and IMEPay come next. PrabhuPay and NamastePay feature among the top five wallets in the country.
According to Nepal Rastra Bank, in Ashar 2079 (June-July 2022), there were 162.06 million transactions totaling Rs 17.75 billion. Three years ago, the number of wallet users was 136.75 million.
Last year (Ashar 2080 or June-July 2023), there were 208.22 million transactions totaling Rs 20.32 billion. Compared to the previous year, the number of wallet users increased to 189.41 million.
The central bank’s data shows that the use of digital wallets for payments or transactions has been steadily increasing, along with the transaction volumes. Over five years, both wallet users and transaction amounts have seen significant growth. The number of wallet users in the country was 62.74 million in mid-August 2020. The number has increased by 286.62% to 242.57 million. Similarly, the transaction amount has also increased significantly from Rs 7.57 billion in mid-August 2020.
