With e-commerce taking off at full speed, Pakistan doesn’t have its own online payment system or even international systems that are as efficient as one would want it to be example being the likes of PayPal and such that are dominating the online payments industry in the world today.
Therefore in order to change that, Avanza Group and Premier Systems have joined hands to establish a local online payment gateway system to take a share in the growing e-commerce market. The two companies will be investing over $5 million in the gateway that is to connect individuals with merchants and banks.
The joint venture by the two companies will be known as Avanza Premier Payment Services (APPS).
According to Mahmood Kapurwala CEO Avanza Group, the size of Pakistan’s e-commerce market is estimated to be $1 billion, which should be $30-$40 billion in a country with a population of 207 million. He further added that however they look at this gap as an opportunity.
Arshad Raza, CEO of Premier Systems said, “Pakistan is at the cusp of a digital revolution and we are proud to be part of that drive.”
It is reported that APPS is the first fintech in the country that has obtained a payment system provider (PSP) and payment system operator (PSO) license from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). However, the licenses have issued on the condition that the company has raised a paid-up capital of Rs200 million.
APPS are to serve as a shared payment system that will work on any platform, similar to 1Link, which connects ATM machines of different banks.
According to Adnan Ali CEO APPS, this step will help move Pakistan towards the digitization of major institutions, such as merchants, schools, billing industries, mutual funds and other corporate entities by providing digital gateway.
Furthermore, according to him APPs also plans to incentivize brick and mortar businesses with free online services, like building websites and digital marketing. While they will only take a certain share in the profit that comes through online businesses.
