By Md Mamun Islam
 
RANGPUR, Jan 16, 2025 (BSS) – Overcoming numerous obstacles since childhood, online entrepreneur Arifuzzaman Moon has achieved self-reliance and changed his fortune by providing training as well as making other youths digital entrepreneurs.

Starting as an unemployed youth from his student days to 2008 with a passion for learning computers, Moon has achieved this brilliant success by bringing dozens of online and offline services to the doorsteps of the public at nominal prices.
 
Currently, Moon earns an average of Taka one lakh per month, excluding all expenses of running his four business outlets and paying his five employees Taka 45,000 per month.

Talking to BSS recently, Moon, a 37-year-old youth of village Saddyapuskorini Kagojipara under Sadar upazila in Rangpur, narrated all of his accomplishments.

Moon said, “I am the elder among two brothers in our family. I continued studies amid extreme poverty as my poor father had no capacity to assist me. I passed the HSC examinations in 2006. I have had to run after livelihoods since my childhood.”
 
“My days were passing amid hardship…I never lost self-confidence and decided to adapt myself to modern technologies and started learning computers in 2008 when the number of computers was limited in even Rangpur city,” he said.

To acquire adequate knowledge on computers, Moon voluntarily joined a digital photo studio in Palichara Bazar near his village under the Saddyapuskorini union.

Considering his outstanding performance, the studio owner soon appointed him and started paying his salary, so he could continue his studies along with assisting his family.

“Suddenly, I came to know that one male and another female entrepreneur would be appointed at every Union Digital Center (UDC) when I applied for the post at Saddyapuskorini union under Rangpur Sadar upazila in 2010,” Moon said.

He then completed training courses on computers, information and communication technology (ICT), the internet, and other digitized activities organized by the National Local Government Institute.

“Since joining as an entrepreneur at Saddyapuskorini UDC on November 11, 2010, I started dreaming of achieving self-reliance and bringing happiness to my parents apart from encouraging local youths to learn computers for attaining success,” Moon said.

Moon, along with his co-entrepreneur Taznur Begum, began providing both online and offline services to common people with one computer, one black-and-white printer, and a modem in the beginning.

By then, Moon completed an honours degree in Chemistry from Rangpur Carmichael College in 2012.
“I have now 12 laptop computers, laser and two coloured printers, digital cameras, video cameras, optical fibre connection, projector, power generator, IPS, solar panels, scanner, pause machine, sound systems and other equipment and everything,” he said.
 
Moon has procured most of the equipment and machinery from his own resources for providing 160 types of online and offline services to common people now.

“Some 1,400 educated male and female youths, after completing computer training, got engaged with income-generation activities, and many others are getting training at my UDC now,” said Moon, widely known as the info leader of the area.

After completing computer training courses at his UDC, about 25 youths have launched their own business outlets and run those successfully, and most of them have entered different government and private sector jobs.

“For example, Nihat Nayan of village Kantabari now works in the computer division of a private company in Dhaka, while Murad Mian of village Mill Bazaar works in a computer buying house,” Moon said.

Over the years of his attaining continuous successes, Moon has launched his own three business outlets, namely Digital Sub-center-1, Digital Sub-center-2, and Saif Enterprise at Palichara Bazaar adjacent to the Saddyapuskorini UDC.
 
“Five employees are working at my UDC and my personal business outlets, and I pay Taka 45,000 as salaries to them every month now,” Moon said.
 
In the meantime, Moon purchased 14 decimals of land and built a pacca building in his village, Saddyapuskorini Kagojipara, 1.5 km off to the west from his UDC, spending a good amount of money in 2018, and his parents live there now.
 
As a master trainer, Moon has been conducting training on computers, ICT, outsourcing, and different other online services for officials and employees of district and upazila administrations and government departments across the country and earning more.
 
Besides, Moon runs mobile banking services for bkash, Nagad, Rocket and Upay and agent banking for NRBC Bank and Modhumoti Bank Limited at his own online business outlets since 2015 with an average monthly transaction of about Taka two crore now.
 
“People are getting all online services, around 160 in number, available in the country at Moon's UDC, including hajj registration, NID, passport and visa applications, and everything at the minimum cost easily,” Moon said.
 
Moon currently earns about Taka one lakh per month from his Saddyapuskorini UDC and three other personal online business outlets, excluding monthly establishment costs of Taka 60,000 on average.
 
Like many service recipients at the UDC, Murad Mian of Keshobpur village in the Saddyapuskorini union told BSS that he easily got certified copies of his lost national identity card from online services there.
 
Akul Mian of village Keshobpur Paschimpara in the same union said he applied for land ‘Porcha’ from Saddyapuskorini UDC and received the same there after only a few days.
 
After losing his bank cheque book, Anwar Hossain of nearby village Noyapara expressed happiness after submitting an application using online services at the UDC to file a general diary with Rangpur Sadar Kotwali police station in this connection.
 
Chairman of Saddyapuskorini Union Parishad Md Sohel Rana highly lauded the performance of Saddyapuskorini UDC entrepreneur Moon in attaining self-reliance, providing services to people, and spreading computer knowledge among youths of the area.
 
"Moon has become an icon among entrepreneurs and youth in this area. Many more youth are following in Moon's footsteps and achieving self-reliance," he added.