KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is working with 25 banks to facilitate 50 cattle markets across the country for payment through QR codes that may attract up to Rs550 billion as the estimated price of sacrificial animals.

A Quick Response (QR) code payment is a form of contactless payment. A QR code is a scannable barcode containing horizontal and vertical lines, dots, and patterns.

While speaking at the 17th international conference titled ‘Mobile Commerce 2024’, organised by Total Communications, SBP (Payment System Policy and Oversight Department) Joint Director Ahmed Sumair said that the central bank was working with the banks to enable cattle markets and cattle farmers to do transaction on QR code on Eidul Azha.

The SBP will make it easy for buyers of sacrificial animals to pay using a QR code mechanism at cattle markets nationwide during Eid, expanding the application of payments through the Raast Instant Payment System.

The initiative is being taken to help people and merchants to securely make payments, besides helping banks to potentially tap over Rs550bn to Rs600bn cattle purchases through digital banking on the annual religious festival.

“We are working with 25 banks […] and have selected 50 major cattle markets to enable QR code payment method there,” he said.

He said markets had been identified in all 15 cities with SBP field offices, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Hyderabad. “We are covering six cattle markets alone in Karachi this Eid (falling in mid of June 2024).”

He said the project aimed at solving various pain points including the hassle of carrying cash and making payments to purchase sacrificial animals. Besides, it would help the on-boarding of cattle farmers and expand financial inclusion through Raast, he said.

He said the QR code payment method would revolutionise the payment experience, as the high cost of installing POS machines at merchants had its own limitations.

The QR payment has also enabled small merchants to receive payment through online transactions, discouraging the use of cash in the economy. Merchants may display QR code to receive online payment in a real-time and hassle-free manner.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2024