SIM cards for digital payments are being connected to 10 million BISP beneficiaries.

One of Pakistan’s top officials announced on Wednesday that the country’s main program for reducing poverty, the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), intends to provide 10 million women with digital bank accounts connected to their phone numbers in four months, making it one of the biggest such initiatives globally.

BISP Secretary Amir Ali Ahmed stated in an interview that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s proposal for the nation’s digital transformation and cashless economy included the opening of digital bank accounts for the beneficiaries.

“I’m happy to report that 10 million wallets and bank accounts were established,” he stated. “Ten million SIM cards are currently being issued as a follow-up to the same exercise.

He went on, “It is important to share that the entire beneficiary network that we have is focused on women.” “There have been 10 million accounts created for women.”

According to Ahmed, BISP clients will receive their SIM cards by March of the next year, with the process having begun on November 17.

“Let me tell you that this is one of the biggest exercises of this kind ever held in the world, and it is focused on women and is associated with financial empowerment and inclusion.”

Only five to ten percent of the more over 10 million beneficiaries had bank accounts, according to the BISP official, while almost 90 to 95 percent were not included in the system.

He claimed that with the assistance of the IT ministry, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, National Database and Registration Authority, and telecom providers nationwide, they were being connected to the banking system using mobile SIMs.

He stated, “We believe that this initiative of the Pakistani government will not only result in financial empowerment of our beneficiaries, it will also result in financial inclusion of a segment which was not part of the banking sector in Pakistan.” He added that the action will also result in transparency.

Women have previously complained that bank employees have not paid them in full when they do not have their own accounts, but Ahmed promised that this would change.

He added, “They will not be subjected to any exploitation at the agent networks, the lines that one would observe, or the accusations of corruption or deductions that would surface.”