Mobile phones have replaced many aspects of our life. Smartphones have penetrated our life so much that we now turn to our phones for almost everything whether it's for clicking pictures or to check time, to mark a date or take notes, and to communicate with our friends and family. Meanwhile, a new trend has dawned where mobile phones are also changing the way we pay our bills.
In many foreign countries, people have more or less adapted to the new way of payment system through mobile phones. As the world inches closer to a cashless world, Khalti in Nepal is trying to take the same leap for the Nepali economic system. Khalti is an application that works as your mobile wallet that you can use to pay your bills and use it as a payment system among your friends.
Khalti is simple to use and has an easy user interface. Clad in purple and white, the application uses your mobile number as your account number. When you first create your Khalti account you can choose the amount you want to load. Users can connect their bank accounts—with Nepal Investment Bank Limited, Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and Mega Bank Nepal Limited—to load the amount.
But those without bank account(s) can use Khalti; one can simply fill up a voucher in these banks with their mobile number to load their Khalti. Users can also transfer and request funds to and from other Khalti users to load funds. Also kiosk machines of Prabhu Bank Limited allow you to load the amount and make digital payments by transferring amounts or simply scanning the QR codes.
You can access your Khalti account from web and application, which can be downloaded from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. And sync your account on multiple devices; mobile, laptop and tablet, at the same time. They have already crossed 40,000 downloads in android platform and 2,000 in iOS since their launch in January 2017 under Janaki Technology Pvt Ltd.
For its idea, Khalti recently won the People’s Choice award in Google Stories Challenge 2017. They were shortlisted in the Top Nine along with two other Nepali start-ups—Khaalisisi and Eco Cell Industries.