Karandaaz Pakistan is currently accepting applications for grants from commercial banks, branchless banks, PSO/PSPs, Fintechs, non-bank financial institutions, and organizations that specifically serve excluded segments of the population.
According to a company announcement here on Thursday, it is a section 42 corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is promoting access to finance for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises through a commercially directed investment platform, as well as financial inclusion for individuals through the use of technology-enabled solutions.
Savings and insurance have been identified as two categories for this collection of grants.
In savings, pilots will be centred on generating use cases for term deposits, periodic returns, and revolving savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), locally referred to as committee systems.
Pilots aimed at the the adoption of health, life, asset, and travel insurance across digital financial channels would be considered in the insurance sector.
The deadline for grant applications is May 11, 2021.
Karandaaz is developing and promoting models and strategies for financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked population by private sector participation as part of its 2020-2024 plan.
Along with encouraging those who lack access to financial services, this underbanked demographic must be targeted through pilot programmes that introduce financial deepening. Entities interested in applying for grants may obtain additional information.
According to Ali Sarfraz, CEO of Karandaaz, the company collaborates across the ecosystem to maximise impact by increasing access to digital finance for low-income, rural, and otherwise excluded populations segments, especially women. We collaborate with all stakeholders to accelerate the digitization of government and other payment sources, as well as to foster private sector innovation in the area of digital financial services.
Karandaaz accomplishes this goal through a variety of programmes that have a cumulative effect on the environment.
It is critical to promote innovations that have the potential to have a long-term social impact in terms of financial inclusion but are often resource constrained.
This pilot to scale programme was created primarily to foster such novel ideas.
According to Rehan Akhtar, Chief Digital Officer at Karandaaz, we are seeking pilots that can make a difference by identifying a customer adoption plan, digitizing knowledge flow, incentivizing adoption, technically developing systems and goods, testing new use cases, evaluating multiple consumer interfaces, and activating on-ground adoption of a saving or insurance solution.
We hope that these grants for scaling up creative pilots will contribute to expanding the product portfolio of mobile wallets, especially with insurance and investment products, and re-inventing existing non-traditional digital financial services in these two categories.