State Bank Of Pakistan Eyes Digitizing Corporate Supply Chains

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is looking at making corporate supply chains digital, a report from Pakistan Today stated, with an eye toward more financial inclusion.

“It is the overarching aim of the State Bank to ensure a safe and secure financial system,” said SBP Deputy Governor Sima Kamil at a web conference, per the report. “The other role that we have is financial inclusion. What we want is to reduce cash and promote financial inclusion through digitization.”

According to the deputy governor, most supply chains in the country, in both rural and urban areas, are cash- or paper-based, which she said put them at a disadvantage, the report stated.

She said corporate supply chains had been a hurdle in the process, and because of the presence of cash, there is great potential to boost financial inclusion because of the synergy between digital financial services and corporate supply chain actors, the report stated. It could boost transparency for corporates and give a bankable identity to unbanked distributors and retailers.

Kamil also said in the report that there have been many steps taken by SBP to promote financial inclusion, including debuting rules for simplifying the digital onboarding of merchants and deploying QR codes for payments.

There was also the National Payment Systems Strategy, she said, which consisted of building a “modern and robust payment system for the country that enables the provision of cost effective and easily available digital financial services,” the report stated, the most important project of which is the micropayments gateway. The micropayments gateway, she said, will expand to bulk, retail and push payments.

Several payments executives, in conversation with Karen Webster over the summer, said the digitization journey involves more than just invoicing and paying digitally; it also comes with streamlining business and integrating payment opportunities.