KARACHI: Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said on Tuesday Pakistan is leading in terms of the opening of bank accounts in Edison Alliance’s global financial inclusion goal of providing one billion people with affordable digital solutions by 2030.

Speaking at a webinar held in connection with the Spotlight Pakistan Day by the World Economic Forum on the success of the Virtual Remittance Gateway’s (VRG) Asaan Mobile Account scheme, the premier said the platform allows Pakistanis to open bank accounts hassle-free by using a short code on a basic phone without any internet connectivity.

“More than 8.5 million Pakistanis without the internet have opened bank accounts. This number is growing by four to five thousand every day,” Mr Kakar said.

Established in 2013, VRG is a third-party service provider (TPSP) that has developed cost-effective products to provide convenience in payments to unbanked/low-end customers.

Powered by VRG, the Asaan Mobile Account scheme was launched in December 2021 under the supervision of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Pakistan Telecommunication Auth­ority (PTA).

The number of transactions performed until October was 80.45m while the number of accounts opened touched the 8.5m mark. These included interbank fund transfers, local fund transfers and utility bill payments. Local fund transfers contributed a share of 48.9 per cent, followed by interbank fund transfers (35.4pc) and utility bill payments (15.8pc).

In regional terms, Punjab leads the way with 58.2pc of total transactions followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh at 21.2pc and 11.1pc, respectively. Gender-wise, transactions by women in Punjab were higher than those in other provinces. Their share was 81.2pc in total transactions conducted by women.

Speaking on the occasion, VRG and Pathfinder Group Chairman Zarrar Sehgal said the platform is a game-changer for not only Pakistan but also other developing countries that do not have the know-how, branch/agent network and infrastructure to undertake financial inclusion on a fast-track basis.

“This model of providing financial access to the underprivileged can be replicated across the globe, which can have wide-ranging social and economic benefits for the masses,” he said.

VRG is a 100pc equity-financed entity by the Sehgal family with no external financial support from any government or donor-related entities. VRG is now seeking growth capital for scalability.

Speaking on the occasion, VRG CEO Muhammad Salman Ali said 53pc of the total adult population of Pakistan remains financially excluded. Thanks to the Asaan Mobile Account scheme that depends on the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel — which allows users without a smartphone or data/internet connection to use mobile banking through a short code — digital banking is accessible to as many as 48pc of the population that still uses basic phones.

“Konnect by Habib Bank Ltd alone has captured a customer base of 3.5m by providing them with access to formal financial services,” he said. Another example that he cited was of JS Bank Ltd’s branchless banking segment, which is one of the top contributors to Asaan Mobile Account scheme with 8.1m transactions worth Rs37.3bn.

“It utilised the Asaan Mobile Account payments platform for disbursing salaries to the employees of Coastal Guards in far-flung areas where the facilities of basic banking and the internet didn’t exist,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2023