ISLAMABAD, July 21: Pakistan Furniture Council Chief Executive Officer Mian Kashif Ashfaq has stressed the need for a favourable operating and policy environment to expand and promote digital finance in the country.

Talking to a delegation of women entrepreneurs, he said that consumer protection and stable regulation are needed to foster safe and fair practices that bolster trust in the financial system. He said digital transformation makes it easier, cheaper and safer for people to receive wages, send remittances and pay for goods and services.

Around the world, high inflation, slow economic growth and food shortages are hurting the poor strata of the society, he said. He added that unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple other crises have already caused dramatic reversal in development and led to a substantial increase in global poverty. However, on the positive side, he said, the crises have spurred unprecedented changes, especially in industries with a large digital component. This digital revolution has catalysed increase in access to and use of financial services in developing economies, transforming how people make and receive payments, borrow and save, he added.

Kashif said that individual accounts also give women more privacy, security and control over their money, adding that the share of adults in developing economies who make or receive digital payments grew from 35 percent in 2014 to 57 percent last year. He said digital revolution offers a chance to increase formal sector employment without making compliance excessively burdensome. He said financial education programs, especially those that involve peer-to-peer learning, are essential as well.

Credits: INP-WealthPk