Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to accelerate the implementation of a nationwide digital payment system, emphasizing its importance for promoting transparency, convenience, and financial inclusion across Pakistan.
Chairing a high-level meeting on the country’s transition to a cashless and digital economy on Thursday, the prime minister underlined the need to facilitate transactions between citizens and businesses while enhancing awareness about digital payment systems. He stressed that the shift to digital financial services was crucial for improving economic governance and increasing public trust in financial institutions.
During the meeting, it was shared that following earlier directives, three committees have been established to lead the transformation: the Digital Payments Innovation and Adoption Committee, the Digital Public Infrastructure Committee, and the Government Payments Committee.
Officials briefed the prime minister that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is developing strategies to simplify digital payments for merchants. A dedicated package is being prepared to encourage small business adoption of digital payment tools, including QR code-based systems.
Current national targets include increasing mobile app users for digital transactions from 95 million to 120 million and expanding the number of QR code-enabled merchants from 0.9 million to 2 million. The total volume of digital payments is aimed to grow from Rs7.5 billion to Rs12 billion.
However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instructed that these targets be doubled, urging the relevant authorities and committees to engage all stakeholders and submit actionable recommendations.
In a related update, officials informed the meeting that the Islamabad City mobile app, which provides multiple civic services, has recorded 1.3 million downloads. Through this platform, approximately Rs15.5 billion has been collected by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Excise and Taxation Department.
The prime minister reiterated the government’s commitment to digitising financial services as a means to modernise the economy, improve tax collection, and reduce the reliance on cash-based transactions.
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