When it comes to digital inclusion development in the financial areas, Pakistan has surely made progress. Also the knowledge economy as total volume has increased. There are good huge leaps in these areas as branchless banking in Pakistan reached more than Rs 486 billion. This was reached for the duration of October to December for the last year.
The transactions for branchless banking also reached more than Rs 101.6 billion in the same duration. The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) statistics also show the same. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Tuesday that the numbers are a proof that mobile money is more powerful. It proves that it has more potential to expand the reach through branchless banking in Pakistan. It is important to know here that about 85% of the population is still un-banked yet.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) amalgamation with banking services is also one reason. It has helped to move with fully documented economy. This has proved necessary for improving the tax collection. The achievement of 18% tax to GDP ratio is possible under the Pakistan Vision 2015 due to this.
The advantage has also been seen with the huge e-commerce rise. This is all due to websites like Daraz.pk, olx.com, zameen.com, pakwheels.com. There are many others etc too who are still at their development stage. The stats also reveal that the e-commerce growth potential is astronomical.
The GSMA report says that Pakistan’s e-commerce industry is expected to grow many hundred million dollars till 2020. The current figure is just Rs 132 million. The Black Friday Sale at Daraz last year in November is a great hit. Over 1.5 million people visited the website. There were discounts of more than Rs 132 million to be availed.
The link for branchless banking in Pakistan
It is seen that business owners are in the lookout to expand e-commerce through introducing mobile broadband services in Pakistan. The growth of e-commerce is truly the biggest benefit for the Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) after all.
The relationship between ICT growth and broadband with socio-economic country development has been studied. Many large institutes and researchers have been busy in it throughout the world. A growth in broadband or internet has given positive affects on any country’s economy overall.
Financial Institutions (FI) are the leaders for this change in ICT. Online banking, ATMs, virtual banking, mobile payment systems etc are making full use of it.
