1. How do you see the overall landscape of economy in Pakistan post COVID-19?
The entire global economy will be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis because of the lockdown response taken by all the countries to try and minimize the spread of this virus. But Pakistan will face a much bigger impact and one of the biggest reasons is that we lag behind the rest of the world in the adoption of technology or digital services. A lot of the things we do in Pakistan are still time consuming, requiring getting out of the house and having face-to-face interactions. For example, a lot of Pakistanis still go to a bank branch and stand in line to pay a utility bill.
2. What opportunities do you see in the current crisis scenario for Pakistan?
This unfortunate crisis has also created opportunities for customers to move towards digital services. For example, mobile money services like Easypaisa have been around for many years, but customers were too used to their old ways of doing financial transactions and were too hesitant to change. What we see now is that a lot of customers are turning to digital services like Easypaisa, because this lockdown and their inability to make cash payments is forcing them to change their behavior and adopt digital payments. This crisis is also forcing a lot of organizations, businesses, even the Government, to change their way of conducting business. A lot of companies have adopted video conferencing tools for working from home. A lot of retail merchants are going online to ensure business continuity and even the Government is turning to digital payments like Easypaisa for social welfare disbursements.
3. How are you observing the need of the customers during the lockdown and what measures are you taking to provide appropriate customer experience?
Easypaisa plays a very critical role at this time when people can’t step out of their houses, when they do not want to go to bank branches or ATMs or even use currency notes. A lot of new services have been launched to help customers with what they need now, so for example we have a new information section on the Coronavirus in our App and we have built doorstep cash collection services for customers who want to deposit money in their Easypaisa wallet but do not want to leave their houses. We have launched special Corona insurance packages for customers and we have also made Inter Bank Fund Transfers (IBFT) free so that customers can move funds between bank accounts without any charges. We have added the PM Covid-19 donation fund in our wallet as well and as responsible corporate citizens, our employees and our organization has also made a small humble contribution to the PM Covid-19 fund. In the last few weeks, there has been a 300% increase in transactions for certain Easypaisa services. With more people using Easypaisa services, we have ensured that our services remain always available by enhancing system capacities and having 24/7 operational teams.
4. In context of Pakistani market, what challenges do you see as a payment sector player?
Our main challenge remains awareness and we want every Pakistani to know that they can use Easypaisa App, regardless of their network SIM. They can setup their Easypaisa wallet in seconds and that nearly all the Easypaisa services are for free. Especially those with bank accounts can use IBFT to move funds to their Easypaisa wallet instantly for free or that they can get and use an Easypaisa Debit Card at any ATM across Pakistan. We hope that more people become aware and try the Easypaisa App for simple things like purchasing Easyload or bundles across all network operators or paying their utility bills or sending money to their friends and family. Once customers try the Easypaisa wallet, they will find it very difficult to go back to their old traditional, time consuming ways of making payments.
