10m women get BISP bank accounts

ISLAMABAD:

After 16 years of neglect and remaining at the mercy of agents, over 10 million of Pakistan's poorest women have for the first time become account holders and will soon start receiving monthly cash stipends under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) without standing in queues.

The BISP beneficiaries, who were captured clients of commercial banks, did not have bank accounts till recently and used to receive stipends through a limited liability account.

The banks were not willing to treat the poorest women at par with other clients despite charging a 0.5% fee on their transactions and sometimes using their money without paying any interest to either the government or the beneficiary.

It took over 16 years to open 10 million accounts for these women, and that became possible only after holding multiple meetings at the highest level of the government, said Amir Ali Ahmed, the secretary of the BISP while talking to The Express Tribune.

These mobile wallet accounts are a quick mode of everyday payments and offer convenience and speed.

The maximum number of 3.1 million accounts have been opened by Habib Bank Limited (HBL), followed by three million by Bank Al-Falah Limited, two million by Bank of Punjab, 1.2 million by JazzCash, and nearly 700,000 by Easypaisa, according to the BISP.

The wallet accounts are attached to the computerised national identity cards of the women and will be operated through their mobile phones. The government is also providing free SIM cards contributed by Pakistan's telecommunication companies.

However, these women will not get any debit cards to draw cash, and the money can only be received through biometric verification to eliminate the role of any middleman or male family member.

So far, the authorities have distributed 1.7 million SIM cards, and the target is to give at least 30% by the end of next month. The end-March goal is to distribute 80% SIMs and link the accounts with these mobile wallets.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's goal is to make 100% payments to BISP beneficiaries digitally by June next year, said Bilal Azhar Kayani, the minister of state for finance who is leading the cashless economy initiative.

The government plans to give 5.1 million SIM cards in Punjab, followed by 2.6 million in Sindh, 2.2 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 485,000 in Balochistan, 167,360 in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), 115,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and 21,000 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The BISP programme was launched in 2008 to support the poorest families through monthly cash stipends. The programme has evolved over the years, but women faced mistreatment at the hands of agents and were forced to stand in queues for hours in harsh weather.

The government gives Rs13,500 per quarter in stipends, which is expected to increase to Rs14,500 from January as part of a condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The government has allocated Rs716 billion in the budget for BISP, and the IMF uses the programme to counter criticism against its policies that fuel inflation in the country.

So far, about 728,000 cards have been distributed in Punjab, 475,000 in Sindh, 327,000 in K-P and 76,000 in Balochistan, according to the BISP Secretariat. Another 56,000 SIM cards have been given in AJK, 43,000 in G-B and over 4,200 in Islamabad Capital Territory.

The government was not expecting the initiative to take off so quickly, but it is progressing at a speed faster than our expectations, said the secretary. However, it is also facing the issue of reaching women who do not own a mobile phone.

This social protection wallet is a multi-agency initiative requiring coordinated efforts across federal, provincial and regulatory institutions. The Ministry of Information Technology is facilitating nationwide issuance of free SIMs through all telecom operators and coordinates telco deployment as part of the enabling environment.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is providing regulatory oversight, approving agent and device whitelisting, ensuring compliance with SIM issuance policies, enabling secure data sharing and offering real-time troubleshooting during field operations.

The National Database & Registration Authority is managing the biometric verification system, validating beneficiary identity and supporting duplication prevention during SIM issuance.

There is also an issue of biometric-enabled ATM machines, as out of roughly 16,000, fewer than 6,000 are biometric ATMs, said the secretary. To address this obstacle, beneficiaries can go to any shop nearby with biometric facilities.