As Pakistan moves towards digitizing its economy, a number of entrants are now coming with products that could drastically change the way we send and receive money.

One such product is a payment app called ‘Foree’ which is expected to be launched in May this year.

“You don't need to carry cash anymore because your bank account is linked, your debit card and credit card is linked, so you only need to carry your phone which has the app and you can do any transaction with it,” said Murtaza Hashwani, CEO of Pakistani conglomerate Hashoo Group, and Chairman of the Foree board, quoted Arab News.

Hashwani was of the view that the launch of Foree would boost the entry of females alongside young entrepreneurs. “With the point of sale more women and young entrepreneurs will be able to open the business and do transactions.”

“For example for women who want to make clothes or handicrafts today, a lot of time they are looking at how to exchange money. In this case, just from that mobile phone and from the app they will be able to send and receive money, and this can happen across the world,” he said.

Hashwani estimated that the app will create almost 100,000 jobs just in Pakistan in a span of few years.

“We are now ready and we are looking at launching in May where Pakistan will be our first launch,” he said. Hashwani informed that they have integrated with all the largest banks in Pakistan and the app will be launched through Meezan Bank.

Aiming to capture market share in the regions having significant Pakistani diaspora the app will be rolled out regionally in the Middle East and then it would be taken globally

Hashwani said the process of licensing was an especially challenging aspect. “We were told that in order to get a licence we had to make sure that the servers are in Pakistan, as they cannot be hosted anywhere else because there is data of people so everything is being housed here,” he said.