Islamabad: Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani chaired a high-level review meeting at the Finance Division on Wednesday to prepare for the upcoming review of the Prime Minister's Cashless Initiative.
The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), NADRA, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Ministry of IT and Telecommunication, and representatives of the private sector.
The Minister reviewed progress on the Prime Minister's previous directives and outlined key priorities aimed at accelerating Pakistan's digital financial transformation.
A major objective of the meeting was to review progress achieved during the previous year and initiate the process of setting annual performance targets for the national Cashless Dashboard for the current fiscal year.
The participants also discussed the introduction of new analytical indicators to improve real-time monitoring, performance assessment and data transparency.
The meeting reviewed growth in the number of active digital merchants, total digital transaction volumes and overall digital banking users during the previous year.
Progress on the digitisation of government payments across State-Owned Enterprises and autonomous bodies was also assessed, with participants reiterating the objective of fully digitising vendor, employee and pension payments.
The committee members discussed strategies for expanding digital merchant adoption across the country and proposed the establishment of a centralised merchant database to improve real-time transaction visibility and monitoring.
The meeting also emphasised the need to streamline user journeys to ensure that citizens can make digital payments seamlessly across different services and touchpoints.
Highlighting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's vision, Minister Bilal Azhar Kayani reaffirmed the government's commitment to building a transparent, documented and inclusive economy.
He said regular progress reviews would continue to ensure the swift implementation of the Cashless Initiative and maximum convenience for the public.