LAHORE: Allied Bank (ABL) has taken another step forward towards enhancing its footprint of digital banking by tapping the unbanked segments of the market to promote financial inclusion digitally.

An agreement was signed between ABL, Karandaaz Pakistan and Techlogix Mobility in the Innovation lab located at ABL Head Office in Lahore. The agreement was signed by Sohail Aziz Chief, Digital Banking of ABL, Waqas ul Hasan CEO Karandaaz and Salman Akhtar – who is CO-CEO of Techlogix Mobility.

Speaking on the occasion, Sohail Aziz mentioned, “We take pride to be part of Innovation Challenge Fund of Karandaaz and are geared-up to play our part in financial inclusion of the SME sector. With this agreement we have entered into a new era of digital lending where merchants can get instant financing of their orders and that too digitally through our mobile app myABLusing data analytics”.

Waqas ul Hasan shared that Karandaaz is optimistic that the partnership with ABL and Techlogix Mobility would result in an innovative lending model that will address the capital needs of the underserved SME sector. Efficient capital allocation will create much needed jobs and subsequently contribute to the economic growth of Pakistan.

According to Salman Akhtar, Co-CEO of Techlogix Mobility, “In Pakistan, fewer than 5 percent of SMEs receive any form of formal sector financing. To solve this problem, we developed a unique data-driven digital solution to help ABL extend credit to merchants and small distributors in meeting their order financing requirements. We are very excited about this collaboration and grateful to Karandaaz to catalyze and stimulate SME growth.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021