Karandaaz Pakistan has signed grant agreements with FinTechs, Oraan Tech (Pvt) Ltd and Techlets (Pvt) Ltd, with funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A separate agreement has been inked with NRSP Microfinance Bank with funding from the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), said a press release issued on Monday.
These grants will help in getting more women involved in the financial sector and closing the gender gap in Pakistan's digital financial services industry.
All three partners were selected through the Karandaaz Financial Inclusion of Women Challenge run during 2019-2020. Given the early stages of Pakistan's digital financial services market and the low number of active digital accounts, there is a wide gap in determining the pricing, products, and messaging strategies that can maximise the poor and hereto unbanked population's adoption and usage of digital financial services.
Karandaaz Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ali Sarfraz said, "Realising the need to cater to the pervasive gap in Pakistan's digital financial services landscape, Karandaaz wanted to partner with innovators who had pilots for gender-smart, women-centric financial products and services. Our goal is to provide our partners Oraan, Techlets, and NRSP Microfinance Bank, an opportunity to pilot, test, and scale interventions for different female market segments."
He said, "To make tangible progress towards targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Pakistan must take actions to facilitate women's participation in the process of development and fostering the financial inclusion of women is a core theme for Karandaaz."-PR
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