The sweeping national initiative aimed at transitioning the country toward a cashless economic model has achieved major operational milestones during its first year of implementation. According to an official progress review chaired by Minister of State for Railways and Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani, the number of active merchants accepting digital payments across the country experienced a fourfold increase, expanding to more than two million vendors within a twelve-month period. The high-level evaluation meeting, held at the Finance Division, systematically assessed the performance of the program, which was originally launched in June two thousand twenty-five under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister. The foundational objectives of the initiative remain focused on enhancing public convenience, enforcing financial transparency, and building a thoroughly documented economy through the widespread adoption of electronic payment channels.
During the detailed administrative review, participating officials highlighted a substantial acceleration in consumer transaction metrics nationwide. Annual digital transactions experienced a sharp upward surge, climbing from an initial six point nine billion to an impressive eleven point three billion transactions by the close of the review cycle. Concurrently, the aggregate user base utilizing various digital banking platforms expanded significantly, crossing the milestone of one hundred thirty-five million registered users. Senior policy analysts attributed this exponential growth in the merchant network to the strategic deployment and scaling of the government-backed Raast QR Code initiative, which has effectively simplified the onboarding process for small-scale retail vendors and simplified daily merchant transactions.
The minister also conducted an evaluation of national financial inclusion metrics, noting that the overall inclusion rate has successfully risen to sixty-nine percent of the population. While welcoming these positive developments, the chair emphasized the necessity of sustaining targeted interventions designed specifically to minimize the existing gender gap within the financial services landscape, ensuring that women gain equal access to formal banking tools and digital wallets. Turning the focus toward public sector modernization, the minister announced that twenty-five high-impact federal and provincial government entities have been formally identified for complete digital integration through the Raast payment gateway, with an absolute completion deadline established for December two thousand twenty-six.
Significant progress has already been achieved regarding state-level outward disbursements, with approximately seventy-five percent of all government-to-person payment acceptances successfully digitized across centralized departments and self-accounting public entities. To preserve absolute data integrity and guarantee the highly efficient utilization of public funds, the minister directed relevant authorities to thoroughly validate all reported operational progress, aggressively address remaining reporting discrepancies, and eliminate any data duplication across state tracking networks. To ensure an objective evaluation, the government has engaged an independent third-party entity to conduct an unbiased, empirical assessment of the overall performance of the initiative. The meeting concluded with a reaffirmation of the state’s commitment to collaborating closely with regulators, commercial banking entities, fintech startups, and private sector leaders to expand digital touchpoints and support a transparent economic environment.
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