The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is set to introduce a QR code payment mechanism via its Raast platform to facilitate the purchase of sacrificial animals during the upcoming Eidul-Azha festival.
The initiative was announced by SBP Deputy Director Ahmed Sumair at the 17th international conference on ‘Mobile Commerce 2024’. Sumair detailed the bank’s collaboration with 25 financial institutions and the selection of 50 major cattle markets across the country to implement this digital payment solution.
“Currently, we are working with 25 banks and have selected 50 major cattle markets to enable QR code payment methods there to facilitate the masses for the payments,” Sumair stated.
Sumair underscored the importance of the project, highlighting its potential to significantly aid cattle farmers and promote financial inclusion through the Raast platform. The initiative aims to streamline transactions for sacrificial animal purchases, ensuring secure payments for buyers and sellers alike.
“The initiative is being taken to help people and merchants securely make transactions for the purchase of sacrificial animals, besides helping banks to potentially tap over Rs550-600 billion cattle purchases through digital banking during the annual religious festival,” Sumair explained.
The project covers markets in all 15 cities with SBP field offices, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and Hyderabad. Specifically, six cattle markets in Karachi will be equipped with this new payment system for Eidul-Azha.
This development marks a significant step towards modernizing financial transactions and enhancing digital banking in Pakistan, particularly during one of the most economically active times of the year.
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