ISLAMABAD: Governor State Bank of Pakistan Ashraf Mahmood Wathra here on Wednesday said that digital financial services (DFS) outreach would be extended to about 50 percent population of the country by 2020 which currently stood at 16 percent.
Addressing a round-table on "Future of Digital Financial Services in Pakistan," organized by SBP, he said digital financial services was rapidly growing in the country.
UN Secretary General's Special Advocate on Inclusive Finance for Development, Queen Maxima of Netherlands also participated in the round-table.
Governor SBP said digital financial services would also help to serve the under served masses and provide them access to banking network as only 16 percent of local population had banking accounts.
He said digital financial services had huge potential to grow in the country and the objective of the event was also to determine the significance of the services in socio-economic uplift of the country.
He informed that about 375 million transactions worth Rs 1.872 trillion were facilitated during the year 2015 and minimum size of the transaction was Rs 5,000.
Ashraf Wathra said that during the last year over 50,000 drought affected people of Thar were facilitated and provided aid through branchless banking by involving the private sector banks.
He said, to enhance the financial services outreach, the SBP had launched National Financial Inclusion Services project last year and digital financial services were started for aid disbursement, utility bill payments and mobile top up to facilitate the people.
Speaking on the occasion, Queen Maxima lauded the progress
made in digital financial services in Pakistan and increasing use of smartphone services which she said had became a need of modern time.
She urged the need for decreasing the cost of transactions and further improving the efficiency of infrastructure.
She also asked for developing special mechanism for consumers safety and protection and called upon the telcom companies to provide special push to women for using mobile phone.
The Queen also asked for organizing regular meetings to overcome issues and challenges and learn from each others experiences.
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