- Pakistan already collected $8bn of remittance this fiscal year
- Measures introduced by SBP to aid mobile money transfers
The government of Pakistan has announced a major change in the way money transfers from overseas workers are handled.
According to officials, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is partnering with other financial institutions to make it easier for Pakistanis to access funds from international transfers via their mobile devices.
A spokesperson for the SBP says that while about 46 million Pakistanis have traditional bank accounts, more than 140 million people use mobile phones.
"The demand for mobile phone-based money transfer is growing. This is the key to channelling home remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis, legally, to their Pakistan-based families via their mobile phones," the bank official said.
By most recent estimates, thousands of Pakistanis are currently living and working overseas in the US, the UK and other EU countries, the United Arab Emirates, and across the Middle East. Annual money transfers to family and friends back home have grown from $6.5bn in 2008 to nearly $20bn in 2017.
Like many other countries whose economies depend heavily on remittances from citizens working abroad, the amount of money flowing into Pakistan from these workers is nearly equal to the whole of the nation's export income. Without the income from these international money transfers, the Pakistani economy would face an enormous deficit.
In just the first five months of this fiscal year — which began 1 October 2017 — Pakistan has already collected over $8bn in remittance income from foreign workers, a 1.28% increase from the same period in the previous fiscal year.
Under the new SBP system, recipients of money transfers from overseas do not need to have a bank account in order to access funds. They can receive payments through a money transfer app via their mobile phones.
