The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Workers Equity Holding B S C (WEH) have signed an agreement for providing an innovative home remittance service to Pakistanis employed in the category of unskilled and semi-skilled work force by reputable overseas firms.
WEH is a UAE based company with relevant experience, and is already providing such service through an Indian bank for Indian workers in UAE. According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, initially the market to be catered will comprise GCC countries, specially the UAE, where maximum human capital is being exported by Pakistan, to assist mainly in sectors like oil and gas exploration, construction etc.
As per agreement, WEH will be responsible for marketing to employers of overseas Pakistani workers for NBP facility, put up ATM machines at worker's premises, ie worker camps and set up small office for ATM maintenance and remitters' facilitation and work with employer's bank to issue ATM cards to workers that will be used at multi-lingual ATMs installed at worker camps, which will enable workers to withdraw cash at their camps according to their personal needs rather than maintaining all the monthly cash requirements with them.
WEH will also be responsible for registering workers' willing consent to send part of their earnings to their beneficiaries in Pakistan through NBP and obtain monthly salary register from employer, consolidate with amount requested to be sent to Pakistan and forward it to NBP. Employers will transfer equivalent funds through their bank to NBP, which will be reconciled with transaction file received from overseas partner. The remitters will be given the option to have remittances sent to their beneficiaries each month payable at bank branch of their choice. The overseas workers will have the option to open an account with NBP, if they do not already have one. In this regard, the overseas partner will work as DSA for NBP, so that it gets all the account opening formalities/documentation completed by the remitter and send it to NBP through courier for opening a Pak rupee account.
As a part of the agreement, NBP will put in place an IT system that will be capable of tracking the fate of remittances on consolidated as well as individual basis. The remitter will have the facility to check the fate of his/her remittance through NBP's overseas partner local office or through an ATM installed at his camp. The remittance will be delivered by credit to beneficiary's account, through electronic channels or by simply giving cash at NBP branch counter.
According to World Bank, total world remittances receipts from overseas workers amounted to $72.3 billion, of which, remittance receipts from GCC countries were $22.7 billion in 2001 which constitute 31 percent of the total remittance. The official number of overseas foreign workers in GCC was estimated at around 10.5 million.
According to State Bank of Pakistan Annual Report 2004-05, Pakistan received total remittances of $1.02 billion in 2001, out of which 0.69 billion were from Gulf countries through formal channels.
The remittances through formal channels from Gulf countries are increasing annually as total remittances from Gulf countries were $0.69 billion which were 67.64 percent $1.02 billion, total world's remittances. Total remittances from Gulf countries increased to 1.07 billion in 2002 against $2.34 billion of world's remittances. In 2003 Gulf countries remittances were $1.89 billion against $4.19 billion of world's remittance and increased to $1.61 billion in 2004 against $3.82 billion of world's remittances. The Gulf countries total remittances were $1.85 billion in 2005, which were 44.57 percent of $4.15 billion of total world's remittances.
According to World Bank study, titled 'Migrant Workers' Remittances', Microfinance and the informal economy prospects and issues by Shivani Puri & Tineka Ritzema the informal remittances ratio for Pakistan is 43 percent of the formal remittances.
There are approximately 10 million accounts with NBP, and over 1.5 million customers are availing some form of credit and other products from NBP. The bank offers a wide array of retail, corporate, investment and trade finance products through the largest and strongest branch network in Pakistan. NBP has a presence in 18 countries across the globe. Recently the bank has been awarded a full banking license for Saudi Arabia.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.