In a significant move towards increasing the country’s digital economy, Pakistan is set to launch a national Digital Payment Index (DPI). This initiative aims to track and assess the progress of payment digitization across the nation, providing a comprehensive framework to measure digital payment adoption across various channels, sectors, regions, and demographics.
The DPI will highlight the effectiveness and penetration of digital payment infrastructure, the use of digital channels, and consumer awareness of digital payment tools. This aligns with Pakistan’s broader digital transformation agenda, aiming to identify gaps and opportunities in the current digital payment infrastructure and facilitate targeted policy interventions and investments.
Globally, several countries have developed similar indices to map digital payment infrastructure. For example, the Mastercard Digital Payment Index offers insights into consumer payment digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe. Pakistan’s DPI will include indicators such as account penetration, card usage, instant payment enablement, QR code payment adoption, and contactless POS penetration. It will also assess consumer awareness, convenience, and knowledge of digital payments, alongside cashless payment usage and solution adoption.
The initiative will be developed under Karandaaz Pakistan, in collaboration with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which previously partnered to establish the RAAST Payment System. The DPI aims to create a robust and reliable measure reflecting the adoption, usage, and development of digital payment systems in Pakistan.
It will support the local payments ecosystem by providing actionable insights and combining scattered data into a structured, standardized, and easy-to-track measure.
The index will allow stakeholders to study developments in local infrastructure and assess digital payment acceptance over time. It will also help understand consumer preferences and pain points, delivering insights on payment acceptance infrastructure, access to payment methods, and perceived convenience and security.
Karandaaz Pakistan has sought proposals for designing this comprehensive index, which will be updated periodically with information from the SBP and other sources. The goal is to construct a robust and informative index that helps policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, and private sector players make informed, data-driven decisions, fostering a vibrant digital economy in Pakistan.
