ISLAMABAD - Karandaaz Pakistan is accepting applications from commercial banks, branchless banks, PSO/PSPs, Fintechs, non-banking financial institutions and entities that primarily focus on the excluded segments of the population, to apply for grants to scale up their pilots that generate new financial use-cases for digital channels.
Two categories that have been defined for this set of grants are savings and insurance. In savings, pilots that are testing the use-case generation in term deposits, periodic returns, and rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA), locally known as committee system will be focused. In insurance, pilots that are geared to improve adoption of health, life, assets, and travel insurances through digital financial channels will be considered. Karandaaz under its strategy for 2020-2024 is building and supporting models and solutions for the financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked population through private sector engagement. In addition to empowering those who do not have an account, this underbanked population must be targeted with pilots that introduce financial deepening.
Ali Sarfraz, CEO Karandaaz said, “Karandaaz collaborates across the ecosystem to maximize impact through improved access to digital finance for low income, rural, and otherwise excluded population segments, especially women. We work with all stakeholders to facilitate the digitization of government and other payment streams as well as provide support for innovation in the realm of digital financial services that originate from the private sector. To this end, Karandaaz runs multiple programs that contribute to a holistic impact on the ecosystem. It is crucial to extend support for innovations that are likely to create sustainable social impact as far as financial inclusion is concerned, but are often limited in terms of resources. This pilot to scale program was specifically designed to support such innovative ideas.”
Rehan Akhtar, Chief Digital Officer Karandaaz, said, “We are looking for pilots that are intended to make a difference through identification of consumer adoption strategy, digitization of information flow, incentives adoption, technically develop systems and products, test new use cases, test multiple consumer interfaces and activate on-ground adoption of a saving or insurance solution. We are hopeful that these grants for scaling up innovative pilots will help increase the product portfolio of mobile wallets, specifically with insurance and savings products and re-invent existing un-conventional digital financial services for these two categories.”
Despite increased uptake of digital channels for financial services in the last 12 years in Pakistan, research and data shows that the users have a low-value perception of such services. Identifying and communicating a compelling value proposition to consumers is vital for increasing use-cases. Understanding the nuances of how consumers of different segments earn, save, and spend their money can help providers develop relevant value propositions for each segment. This pilot to scale grants from Karandaaz will help create value propositions that resonate with the end-users under the categories of savings and insurance and broadening as well as normalizing everyday usage of digital financial services and products for these functions.