Bank Alfalah, one of the largest private banks in Pakistan, has partnered with Paymob, MENA’s market-leading digital payments provider. The two organisations have collaborated to activate and support merchant acquisition and integration services across Pakistan. The partnership aims to empower over 100,000 merchants across Pakistan and launch new innovative services in e-commerce acceptance for online merchants.

This partnership records Paymob’s first collaboration outside its Egyptian home market and comes as part of its expansion strategy in the MENAP region.

Bank Alfalah’s partnership with Paymob is aimed at driving financial inclusion and leading the way for swift payment acceptance, and will follow Bank Alfalah’s objective to support merchant acquisition and integration services across the country. This collaboration will enable an instant onboarding feature using Paymob’s advanced solutions such as payment gateway integration, POS terminals and SoftPOS. The instant onboarding feature is empowered by the digital onboarding regulations recently published by the State Bank of Pakistan and comes as one of many steps the SBP has led to enable MSME Merchants in order to further digitise the ecosystem.

The market opportunity in Pakistan is significant given the range of retail outlets and SME businesses across the country’s cities. With over four million SMEs using just over 80,000 POS terminals and less than 3000 e-commerce payment gateways, the market is perfectly suited to meet Paymob’s criteria and strategy to expand globally — and bridge the digital financial gap.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Karachi, Atif Bajwa, President and CEO of Bank Alfalah said: “Bank Alfalah is proud to partner with Paymob in one of Pakistan’s largest Fintech partnerships. Our collaboration will aim to serve thousands of merchants across Pakistan and the industry first “Tap-on-Phone” service will allow us to reach even the most remotely located merchants in Pakistan.”

Alain El-Hajj, COO of Paymob, said: “This is a remarkable moment for Paymob. We are honoured to partner with Bank AlFalah under its progressive leadership to provide reliable and seamless digital payment services for SMEs across Pakistan. With this partnership we aim to contribute the shared vision of economic growth and digitisation of SMEs.”

Pakistan’s market has several positive drivers — the forecast of healthy GDP growth per annum, with the total value of e-commerce consumer goods having grown by 83% in 2021 to reach US$3.9 billion. Moreover, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has reported that 101 million people use the internet in Pakistan, with 46% having access to broadband services and 85% (183 million) to mobile connections.

The country also has the potential for significant Fintech growth, due to its young population, disruptive internet and smartphone penetration, consumer preferences for mobile phones and social media, a booming e-commerce market facilitating digital payments, and the financial system’s overall capacity for innovation.