Home »Business and Economy » Pakistan » Fiscal year 2019 PSDP: financial inclusion project proposed

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  • Mar 20th, 2018
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Finance Division has proposed a financial inclusion project in the next fiscal year's Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) with an allocation of Rs 4.463 billion to increase digital transaction accounts and thereby access to financing in the country. Sources said that the project will be funded through a World Bank (WB) financing facility; however, financing agreement is pending for signature between Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and the World Bank and hopefully it will be signed before the end of the current fiscal year.

Sources further stated that as the project has not started yet, the amounts are tentative and they are optimistic that there will be no issue as all the modalities have been finalized. The project is spread over a five-year period with goals and targets to double access to financing from the present level. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) have been tasked to implement the project.

The scope of the project is to improve market infrastructure and institutional capacity as well as supporting the uptake and usage of digital payments and financial services and improving access to financial services for micro-enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The WB will be providing financing for the project through International Development Association (IDA). The project was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) on October 6, 2017 with the completion date in the year 2022.

After the completion of the project, the numbers of digital transaction accounts are expected to be increased to 60 million from the current level of 45 million. The project will support the SBP to further strengthen its payment system infrastructure, micro-finance bank and micro-finance institutions to disburse additional loans and enhancing the capacity of Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) to offer additional access points for digital transactions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018


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