Omer Bin Ahsan, Chief Executive Officer, Haball shared his insights on impact of pandemic out-break on digital financial services in Pakistan with our editor in Chief during an exclusive Q&A session on COVID-19.
1. How do you think the financial industry change post COVID-19?
They will read the writing on the wall on their insourced digital initiatives and all the collaboration they were ignoring due to protectionist behavior and riding the wave on T-Bill success that created an attitude of complacency from the top.
2. What measures have you taken to ensure lower health risks for your employees?
Only key management and technical staff 30% is allowed after necessary approval from district government office. Strict SOPs are observed to maintain distance and cleanliness.
3. How are you helping partners and customers cope with this crisis?
Haball immediately reached out to 50 essential supply corporate customer on a program called ESCAPE (Essential Supply chain Automation Platform Enablement) which will allow them to enabled digital on-boarding, order and payments for the entire supply chain. Haball has also offered informed of their support to SBP and Digital Pakistan to enabled Digital Supply chain with a view of deferred commercials in order to attract adoption for essential supply chain during lock-down as most supply chains were disrupted due to avoidance of cheques/branches and human interaction.
4. Do you believe this crisis is offering opportunities for digital business such as yourself and what steps have been taken to make sure you are on top of everything?
Yes beyond speed, transparency and cost effectiveness, digital systems offer an escape from redundant human interaction that consume time and now due to this new bio-hazard expose the risk of viral infection. It was the march of the spirit, the current government’s transparency measures, the need for domestic liquidity to improve and avoiding supply chain delays can all be thrown into the mix that make digital payments more relevant in the corporate supply chain than ever before.
5. Since there are limitations in usage of physical channels and the surge in digital channels usage is being witnessed, do you think digital payments eco-system will be revolutionised in Pakistani landscape post COVID-19?
The revolution had already arrived 10 years ago, the adoption and scale was missing due to poor use-cases, regulatory restrictions and tech investment. These factors have significantly improved with SBP being aggressively pro-digital payment and financial inclusion. Investors are now looking at Pakistani tech firms. Scale is still the challenge in an asymmetric economy and that’s the real nut that all FinTechs are trying to crack. Rests assured, someone will crack it.
6. Do you think future is completely digital or human touch will remain necessary for the masses?
I hope it’s not completely digital, it would be an Orwellian nightmare. Humans agency has to drive technology and any technology that makes the human subject disappear is suffocating. The shift of human agency will be on core competencies that require human rigor and ingenuity. We need to digitize where we need it not because of any feeling of being left behind.
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