Government says active digital payment merchants have crossed 2 million

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Railways and Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani chaired a high-level review meeting at the Finance Division to examine progress made over the past year under the government’s Cashless Pakistan initiative, according to an official statement issued on Monday.

The review found broad expansion in the country’s digital payments landscape. Annual digital transactions rose from 6.9 billion to 11.3 billion, while the number of active merchants accepting digital payments increased from 0.5 million to more than 2 million. The statement said this growth was supported by the government’s Raast QR Code initiative. It also said the number of digital banking users had climbed to more than 135 million.

The initiative was launched in June 2025 under the direct supervision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. According to the statement, it is based on three main objectives: improving public convenience, increasing transparency, and speeding up the documentation of the economy through digital payments.

Financial inclusion and public sector digitisation

During the meeting, Kayani also reviewed developments related to financial inclusion. He noted that financial inclusion had reached 69%, while the gender gap continued to narrow through targeted measures.

The minister also examined progress on digitising the public sector. The statement said 25 high-impact federal and provincial entities had been selected for full digitisation through Raast by December 2026.

Kayani further reviewed work on digitising government-to-people payments and noted that around 75% digital payment acceptance had been achieved at both centralised and self-accounting entities.

Call to sustain momentum

Kayani stressed the need to maintain the pace of implementation in order to push forward Pakistan’s digital transformation. He also reiterated the government’s intention to continue working with regulators, financial institutions, fintech firms and the private sector to widen digital payments, deepen financial inclusion and support a more transparent and documented economy.

According to the statement, the minister also underlined the need to verify reported progress, address gaps in reporting and remove duplication in data to ensure transparency and careful use of public funds. He added that the government had engaged a third party, which had begun assessments for that purpose.