Nepal to adopt India's UPI as payments platform

Nepal will become the first country outside of India to adopt Unified Payments Interface or UPI as the payments platform in the Himalayan nation. The international subsidiary of NPCI, the NIPL, in a statement made the announcement. National Payments Corporation of India NPCI is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is a payment app to make simple, easy and quick transactions using the UPI. BHIM UPI App was launched on December 31, 2016 to transform the country into a cashless economy.
The platform has seen an increase in popularity especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The adoption of the platform by Nepal is expected to drive the digitalization of cash transactions and furthering the vision and objectives of the Nepal Government and Nepal Rastra Bank as the Central bank. the Gateway Payments Service (GPS), and Bengaluru-based Manam Infotech. Over the next few months, the three entities—NPCIL, GPS, and Manam—will work closely together to deploy UPI in Nepal. NIPL said that the collaboration will enable the last-mile consumers in Nepal to reap the benefits of an open interoperable payments system driving immediate payment transfers between bank accounts and merchant payments in real-time. In 2021, NIPL partnered with Singapore and Bhutan to accept UPI-based payments. It also tied up with the UAE’s Mashreq Bank to enable Indian travellers to pay for their purchases. The move, a step towards financial integration, comes amid Nepal’s inclination to maintain equidistance between China to its north and India to its south.The move will also enable cross-border remittances between the two south Asian countries.