A high-level delegation from the Gates Foundation, comprising Dr Anita Zaidi, President of the Gender Equality Division and Dr Kalpana Kochhar, Interim President of the Global Policy & Advocacy Division and other senior officials, called on Bilal Azhar Kayani, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue & Railways to review progress on Pakistan's digital transformation agenda. The Minister highlighted the delegation about the progress on Cashless Pakistan initiative, launched under the Prime Minister's direct supervision, highlighting the rapid scale-up in digital payments and merchant adoption of Raast QR. He noted that active merchants on digital payments have grown from 0.5 million to 2.03 million, already surpassing the June 2026 target of 2 million, supported by a PKR 3.5 billion government subsidy on Raast QR that has helped drive adoption and behavioural change. The Minister also shared updates on rising digital transactions, growing digital banking users, and improving financial inclusion, particularly the narrowing gender gap in access to financial services, and reaffirmed the government's commitment to expanding transparency and efficiency in public payments. The Gates Foundation delegation endorse the progress, that has been made so far to digitize Pakistan economy under Prime Minister’s Cashless Pakistan initiative and assured their continue support through Karandaaz.
Beyond Cashless Pakistan, the Minister spoke about the government's broader economic reform agenda, underscoring the need to document and formalize the economy to strengthen fiscal sustainability. He highlighted the newly introduced “Asaan Tax Scheme” for small traders, designed to bring merchants into the formal economy through incentive-based, voluntary registration rather than enforcement alone. The Minister emphasized that the government is setting ambitious targets for the current fiscal year to further accelerate the Cashless Pakistan agenda, including deeper merchant onboarding, expanded digitization of government payments, and improved end-user experience on digital payments. He welcomed the Gates Foundation's continued partnership, including its support through Karandaaz, and responded positively to the potential expansion of development agenda through a strategic partnership framework.
