When the 2015 earthquake struck Nepal, and again during the Covid-19 pandemic, guitarist Bobby Lama of the band Mongolian Heart joined rescue and relief efforts, carrying cash to affected communities himself. The hassle of taking money to a bank meant he never considered donating to government relief funds.

This time, after devastating floods struck Nepal, Lama simply scanned a QR code and transferred money to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund through mobile banking.

He initially donated Rs5,000. After consulting his bandmates, he contributed another Rs150,000 through Siddhartha Bank. “We have a European tour coming up. After we return, we plan to contribute more through the QR system,” Lama said. “Scanning a QR code has made donating to the relief fund much easier and more transparent.”

Lama’s experience reflects how digital philanthropy is becoming easier, faster and more accessible in Nepal.

By the 11th day after the devastating Bhotekoshi floods, more than Rs10 billion had been collected in the relief fund.

Contributions have come from schoolchildren, including students at Shodasha Secondary School in Mangalasen, Achham, as well as Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.

The campaign marks the first time in Nepal that individuals have been able to make direct person-to-government transactions on such a scale, sending money digitally straight into a government account. During the 2015 earthquake, there was no similarly convenient digital channel for individuals in Nepal or abroad to transfer money directly to a government relief fund.

Nepal’s digital payments infrastructure has expanded rapidly since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle said digital payments and technology had made it considerably easier to collect relief funds.

“For donors living abroad, we arranged for direct payments using dollar-denominated cards such as Visa and Mastercard,” Wagle said. “They no longer have to visit a bank or go through cumbersome international bank transfers.”

Data from the Finance Ministry, digital payments company Fonepay and Nepal Clearing House Ltd (NCHL) also show that electronic payments have become the preferred channel for disaster donations.

The Nepal Rastra Bank removed transaction limits for donations to the relief fund, allowing small contributions to be collected easily through digital QR payments and wallets.

Of the 889,145 transactions processed through Fonepay’s network, 815,219 were domestic QR payments made by people in Nepal. They generated Rs2.095 billion for the relief fund.

Through NCHL’s network, 246,614 transactions had been recorded by Saturday afternoon. Domestic QR payments accounted for the largest number, with 112,932 transactions generating Rs390.5 million.

Because Nepal’s electronic payment systems are connected to international networks, Nepalis living abroad and international donors have also been able to contribute without making traditional bank transfers. More than Rs1.4 billion has been deposited directly into the relief fund through 93,850 transactions made using international cards such as Visa and Mastercard and authenticated through the 3D Secure system.

“In previous disasters, people had to go to banks and queue up to make donations,” said Santosh Koirala, president of the Nepal Bankers’ Association. “The digital transformation of banks and financial institutions now means anyone can easily send relief money through a mobile banking app.”

Experts have long pointed out that the financial sector is the only one of the eight pillars of Nepal’s Digital Nepal Framework to have undergone substantial digital transformation.

By Saturday, eSewa had collected about Rs110 million through 175,000 transactions for the relief fund. More than half of those contributions came from students, homemakers, drivers and small business owners donating less than Rs100 at a time.

Small contributions from ordinary citizens have added up to a substantial sum.

The central bank’s decision to remove transaction limits on donations after the disaster made it easier for people to contribute both large and small amounts. Payment service providers also waived transaction fees and merchant discount rates for relief contributions, further encouraging the use of mobile banking, connectIPS, digital wallets and QR codes.

The strengthening of Nepal’s digital financial infrastructure has connected donors at home and abroad directly to a government relief fund. Contributions have also been arriving through international payment systems, including India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), China’s Alipay, Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay.

By Saturday, UPI had generated Rs48.54 million for the relief fund, while Alipay had contributed Rs17.97 million.

Fonepay and NCHL have played a central role in facilitating payments during the campaign.

Diwas Sapkota, Fonepay chief executive officer, said the process was made easier because the government had clearly specified the payment channels and account for donations from the outset.

“The convenience of QR technology has made it possible to collect such a large amount spontaneously in such a short period,” Sapkota said.

Neelesh Man Singh Pradhan, NCHL chief executive officer, said the scale of digital fundraising, both domestically and internationally, offered important lessons for Nepal.

“It is now time for Nepal to make its payment systems more open and capable of receiving and sending payments in different forms from almost every country in the world,” he said.

Pradhan noted, however, that cheques and bank transfers remained important for large-value transactions.

“A balanced approach is needed to develop different payment systems and instruments with mandatory interoperability, to prevent fragmentation and make the overall payment ecosystem more organised,” he said.

Financial technology expert Sanjeev Subba said Nepal had made significant progress in QR and cross-border payments.

“An infrastructure has been established that allows secure payments from abroad using systems such as Visa and Mastercard through 3D Secure,” he said. “This payment infrastructure was not built overnight. Work began after the 2015 earthquake. Fonepay was registered, payment-system laws and regulations were introduced, and the central bank actively supported the development of the sector. Around 2023-24, cross-border payment mechanisms such as UPI and Alipay+ were plugged into Nepal’s system.”

But Nepal still has several layers of digital public infrastructure to build, Subba said.

“We need to build a common Nepal Stack,” he said. “That should include e-KYC, a unified national QR code and an interoperable data-exchange platform.”

The government circulated a list of eight to 10 different QR codes operated by different banks for donations to the relief fund, he said, creating confusion for users.

Bibhushan Bista, executive chair of Young Innovations and vice-president of Nas-IT, an umbrella organisation representing Nepal’s software and IT service companies, said his organisation had urged member companies to contribute directly to the Prime Minister’s Disater Relief Fund rather than launch separate fundraising campaigns.

But he criticised the government for failing to harness the technology sector’s expertise in disaster response.

“Technology companies were eager to contribute their technical expertise, rather than just cash, in areas such as drone mapping, AI, data and disaster management,” Bista said. “But the government was unable to establish a dedicated IT support desk and coordinate those efforts in an organised way.”