I never thought I’d see the day when paying for mo:mo: at a corner shop in Kathmandu wouldn’t involve rummaging for rupees. Yet now, my city’s soundscape had changed: instead of the rustle of banknotes, you’d hear the ding of a smartphone confirming an eSewa or Khalti payment. The COVID-19 lockdown has accelerated a quiet cashless revolution in our daily lives, and probably one of the last generations who grew up without the concept of digital money. This did make me wonder: when did Kathmandu become so comfortable going digital?
The Pandemic Push Toward Digital Payments
The government’s first lockdown in March 2020 forced everyone indoors, and looking back, the pandemic seems to be the catalyst that nudged even cash-loving Nepalis to try digital transaction. And now in 2021, this shift has only intensified. One banking executive remarked that one-third of all bank account holders, which is about 10.15 million out of 30.25 million, were using mobile banking services, a level of adoption that previously would have taken years but happened within months. Even my non-tech-savvy friends who once preferred cash began asking, “Do you take mobile payment?” when settling lunch bills.
During the fierce second COVID wave in April–May 2021, digital payments hit record levels as we reverted to stay-home mode. Nepal Rastra Bank data shows transactions reached an all-time monthly high of NPR 368.66 billion from mid-March to mid-April 2021. We paid utilities, ordered groceries, and even paid rent from our phones. Being indoors did lead to us appearing innovative with money. COVID-19 catapulted Nepal’s payment habits into the future, as one newspaper put it, and urban Nepal “quickly moved from a cash-dependent economy to become digitally savvy”.
Interestingly, old habits didn’t disappear overnight. When the second lockdown lifted, and we cautiously returned to the streets, and digital payments dipped about 12% in value as some people went back to paying cash. It was as if Kathmandu needed the pressure of lockdown to embrace the new ways. The overall trajectory still was clear. There was no un-ringing this bell. By mid-2021, the central bank tallied Rs3.19 trillion in digital transactions in 11 months, a staggering sum that underscored how routine e-banking, mobile wallets, and QR scans had become.
Daily Life Goes Cashless: Ease, Safety, and Remote Living
For many of us, going cashless was a necessity turned convenience. When COVID fears were at their peak, touching paper money felt risky for everyone around, and digital payments offered peace of mind. E-commerce operators observed that customers increasingly chose online transaction options, motivated by safety and ease. “Avoiding handling cash” was one of the major reasons my friends and I stuck to Esewa. After all, why queue at the bank or utility office (and potentially live with a virus) when you can pay via mobile in seconds?
The benefits of this cashless life were quickly apparent. Soon enough, all of my friends would be paying electricity and water bills on eSewa whenever they needed to, without needing to go to the counter to pay by standing in line at the Old Baneshwor office. On top of that, Nepal’s top digital wallets have now integrated almost every routine service into a few taps. Amid a pandemic, scanning a QR code at the grocery store not only saved me from handling cash, it also eased everyone’s mind. Many businesses encouraged digital payments to minimize contact, often waiving fees or offering small discounts to nudge us, and it worked.
Like many offices, mine went fully remote during lockdowns. Digital payments became our lifeline in this new work-from-home normal. Need to reimburse a coworker for a client expense? Just send it via mobile banking. Splitting an online team lunch order? Esewa to the rescue.
And to be honest, I would get a few teases from friends because I used to say, “Dai, Esewa cha?”(Do you have Esewa?) to people at every store I visit. I remember feeling a sense of liberation – and a bit of disbelief – at how easy money movement had become. One evening, after a long Zoom meeting, I ordered some stuff on Daraz and paid via Nabil’s payment gateway and it struck me that I hadn’t touched physical cash for a while, and I hadn’t been needed to.
Cultural Shifts: Trust, Generations, and the Workplace
This sudden outburst of monetary digitalization seems to have begun to reshape our cultural attitudes toward money. Traditionally, we Kathmandu-ites believed in the solidity of cash to feel crisp notes counted twice, especially before and during Dashain. Now in 2021, that trust had to transfer to the invisible. At first, people would have been concerned: Is my money safe in an app? What if something goes wrong? What if I send it to the wrong person? I guess payment platforms would have to work on their marketing on this front a lot had it not been the lockdowns. But as usage surged, customer apprehensions regarding digital transactions gradually disappeared. People saw it working and grew confident.
The consistent reliability of bank apps and wallets, along with measures like one-time passwords and biometric locks (for example, eSewa introduced fingerprint login for security), helped build trust. It also helped that the Nepal Rastra Bank was visibly supporting digital payments, introducing policies to promote e-transactions, and even enabling online government services like tax payment, or at least trying to.
Generational divides did make for some wholesome moments, especially when having to explain to shopkeeper aunties saying, “No, Aunty, the money doesn’t vanish, it’s going to arrive, do not worry”, and just after a moment, the notification beep arrives, to give that final assurance. The younger generation, who had the privilege of growing and learning in the digital economy, is clearly the driver of this change.
I recall one of our neighboring uncles declaring in hangout junction that he’d paid his home internet bill on Esewa with a little help from his son, and it was heartening to see that necessity had bridged the generational tech gap, at least within many families. An article also marveled that digital payments were popping up even in daily tea shops and grocery stalls. Seeing a QR code at a tiny momo shop in Buddhanagar blended with modern fintech does feel like slowly becoming as normal as saying “Namaste.”
