Karandaaz Pakistan accepts applications from banks, PSO and others

ISLAMABAD: Karandaaz Pakistan is currently accepting applications from commercial banks, branchless banks, PSO/PSPs, Fintechs, non-banking financial institutions, and entities, which primarily focus on the excluded segments of the population, to apply for grants to scale up their pilots that generate new financial use-cases for digital channels.

According to the announcement of the company here on Thursday, it is section 42 company registered with the

Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to promote access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized businesses through a commercially directed investment platform, and financial inclusion for individuals by employing technology-enabled solutions.

Two categories that have been defined for this set of grants are savings and insurance.

In savings, pilots that are testing the use-case generation in term deposits, periodic returns, and rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA), locally known as committee system will be focused.

In insurance, pilots that are geared to improve adoption of health, life, assets, and travel insurances through digital financial channels will be considered.

The last date to apply for grants is May 11, 2021.

Karandaaz under its strategy for 2020-2024 is building and supporting models and solutions for the financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked population through private sector engagement.

In addition to empowering those who do not have an account, this underbanked population must be targeted with pilots that introduce financial deepening. Entities interested can get further detail to apply for grants.

Ali Sarfraz, CEO Karandaaz said that the Karandaaz collaborates across the ecosystem to maximise impact through improved access to digital finance for low-income, rural, and otherwise excluded population segments, especially women. We work with all stakeholders to facilitate the digitisation of government and other payment streams as well as provide support for innovation in the realm of digital financial services that originate from the private sector.

To this end, Karandaaz runs multiple programs that contribute to a holistic impact on the ecosystem.

It is crucial to extend support for innovations that are likely to create sustainable social impact as far as financial inclusion is concerned, but are often limited in terms of resources.

This pilot to scale program was specifically designed to support such innovative ideas.

Rehan Akhtar, Chief Digital Officer Karandaaz said that we are looking for pilots that are intended to make a difference through identification of consumer adoption strategy, digitisation of information flow, incentives adoption, technically develop systems and products, test new use cases, test multiple consumer interfaces and activate on-ground adoption of a saving or insurance solution.

We are hopeful that these grants for scaling up innovative pilots will help increase the product portfolio of mobile wallets, specifically with insurance and savings products and re-invent existing un-conventional digital financial services for these two categories.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021