Pakistan: Project between NIFT and Checkout.com to create international payment solutions

Islamabad: Pakistan’s National e-commerce Council (NeCC) has approved a new project to promote online businesses and payment services in the country.

Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood today said the “the project between NIFT and checkout.com” would “offer different international payment methods, including PayPal,” for e-commerce businesses in Pakistan. “Private sector’s active participation for introducing modern payment solutions is a great sign for Pakistan’s promising e-commerce industry” he said, adding that “it will also be a driver for export of services particularly the IT sector.”

International payments

The project is a joint venture of National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) – Pakistan’s largest transactional clearing facilitator – and a UK fintech company, Checkout.com that accepts multiple forms of payments including 150 currencies, all international cards and popular local payment methods and also offers fraud protection. It accepts payments from all major international card schemes, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Union Pay as well as digital wallets such as PayPal, AliPay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The implementation of NIFT-Checkout.com project will empower both organizations to provide payment services and pursue commercial opportunities as a partnership. “This strives towards a borderless experience for business and consumers alike, promoting digital payments and settlements for exports and e-commerce across Pakistan” the statement said.

E-commerce promotion

Another MoU also signed at the NeCC meeting was between Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) and Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP), leading retail association. The NeCC meeting also examined the implementation of various measures including taxing e-commerce and logistics facilities in the meeting.

The current state of the digital payment landscape and the need to introduce taxation incentives also came under discussion. Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) related subjects including an update on cross border e-commerce procedure, integration of e-commerce exports with web-based one customs global (WeBOC), was also discussed. Meanwhile, the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was briefed about the facilitative registration mechanism introduced for the e-commerce sector.

NeCC is a body comprising of representatives from the public and private sector, constituted in line with the directions of the national e-commerce policy of Pakistan, approved in October 2019.