ISLAMABAD: The largest payment wallet in the country, Easypaisa, has announced that it will enhance the number of active users by three folds by 2025, taking advantage of the growing broadband coverage areas across the country.

Talking to media on Wednesday, Business Head, Easypaisa, Omer Moeen Malik,said the total number of registered customers on mobile-based wallets had already taken over the total number of bank accounts in the country.

“Easypaisa and Jazzcash, the two main mobile wallets in the country, account for more than 50 per cent of all transactions on One-Link system,” Mr Malik said, adding that the mobile wallet accounts will be the main financial service providers for ordinary citizens in near future.

However, he added that lack of policy support for digital solutions and unwillingness of small businesses to opt for cashless economy was restricting the growth of Fintech.

“All financial services must be open to all banks - including small and micro finance banks - and these services include payment of challans and fees of various government departments ranging from traffic police to school fees,” he said.

Mr Malik also highlighted that the economic growth and future of financial services was in cashless economy but Pakistan was at the lowest tier in South Asia in this regard, just above Afghanistan.

After being launched in 2009, Easypaisa currently has more than eight million active users per month and 170,000 registered agents across the country, with over 25 million registered wallets.

In 2020, over 800 million transactions were executed through the Easypaisa platform amounting to around Rs1.5 trillion.

He said roughly one out of every three smartphone customers in Pakistan use the Easypaisa App, and the number would continue to grow as smartphones were becoming cheaper due to local manufacturing and expansion of broadband services in many unserved areas.

Responding to a query, the business head at Easypaisa said with growing usage, the demand for cyber protection too had increased and several security features had been introduced in the Easypaisa app such as protection with face ID, fingerprint recognition, number detection, OCR and geo-fencing.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2021