Ehsaas Kafaalat Programme: PM Visits Payment Site To Kick Off First Phase

Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Ehsaas Kafaalat Payment Center in Islamabad, payment to 7 million beneficiaries has been started from today.

Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Dr Sania Nishtar briefed the Prime Minister on the steps taken to improve the quality of payments and ensure protection against cyber attacks.

The Prime Minister was further informed that this time women’s access to banks and payment of money from ATMs has also been ensured.

For the first time, the option of withdrawing money from biometric ATMs is being introduced to make the payment system useful and easy for the recipients.

In this regard, Dr Sania told the Prime Minister that the system would protect deserving women from the clutches of corrupt agents and money laundering gangs.

Sponsorship will be paid in different stages. The first phase has started from today under which payment has started to 4.3 million deserving women. Each recipient will be given Rs. 12,000 for the period of July 2020 to December 2020.

It should be noted that the total amount is being paid for 6 months. The Prime Minister has already approved increasing the number to 7 million women, which means that 7 million families will benefit. The additional beneficiaries will be paid after December 2020 and this process will be completed in the current financial year.

The Prime Minister was also shown the trial run of “Ehsaas-One-Woman-One-Bank Account”.  Thus, for the first time in Pakistan, the poorest women will have the option to secure their payments.

Dr Sania said that we need to focus on the financial literacy of women so that they can take full advantage of these initiatives and become truly empowered which is the main objective of this program.

She further said that financial inclusion is the main goal of the realization and is of key importance in building the potential of millions of extremely backward women in Pakistan.

By providing people with access to safe, useful and affordable financial products and services such as transactions, payments, savings, loans and insurance, the government is providing them with financial security so that they can rise above the poverty line and support themselves and their families. Create better life opportunities for Under the digital system, payments at retail points through machines will also be possible after biometric verification. In addition to transparency and prevention of corruption, a number of innovative reforms have recently been introduced that allow recipients to truly monitor their money transfers.

Partner banks have been asked to ensure that the quality of biometric machines at retailer touchpoints meets international standards in order to secure the payment system and empower sponsors. Other important reforms to ensure transparent disbursement of sponsorships include training of retailers and grievance redressal methods.

Most of the digitally and financially weak sections of the Pakistani population are helpless women. The sense of sponsorship is ensuring the financial and digital participation of deserving women across the country. By changing the lives of millions of women, the ‘Ehsaas-One-Woman-One-Bank Account’ will not only help the underprivileged to get out of their financial difficulties but also save them from financial hardship in times of dire need.

Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI visited the Ehsaas Kafaalat Payment site in Islamabad today to kick off payments to 7 million beneficiaries.#EhsaasKafaalat pic.twitter.com/x6kwDae9HO

— Prime Minister's Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) November 27, 2020