How Paymob Promises to Disrupt Pakistan’s Payment Acceptance Ecosystem

It’s an early Saturday morning and most people in Karachi are catching up on much-needed rest.

Yet as is customary in a densely populated metropolis, enthusiasts from tech companies, IT, fin-tech, and banking are gathering at the PC Hotel for a 2-day conference; to listen and participate in what industry experts have to say about Pakistan’s future in technology and financial services.

The conference has been organized by Katalyst Labs where some of the best minds in Pakistan, comprising entrepreneurs, project specialists, and banking gurus plan to jointly debate the country’s outlook and what the digital landscape holds for aspiring e-commerce businesses.

The conference topics are promising: talks on how customer needs are evolving and what companies need to watch out for in a world where social media promises an ever-changing landscape.

Enter Fawad Abdul Kader, Paymob’s Country Manager in Pakistan who is part of a 5-person panel titled “Bank on it: The Future of Fintech”. The moderator asks him why the Egypt-based entity decided to start operations in Pakistan.

With quiet authority and assertiveness, Fawad replies, “Did you know that there is only 1 POS (point of sale) machine for every 2200 persons in Pakistan? And here lies the answer. Paymob started operations in Pakistan because we plan to resolve this gap by offering a suite of payment acceptance solutions for every demographic in this country.”

The panel is quiet for a few seconds, digesting the information they have just heard while several people in the audience perk up and ask, “What is Paymob?”

Paymob, in short, is a growing giant in MENAP. Earlier this year, the leading omnichannel payment player made it to the list of the “Top 25 Middle East Fintech Companies 2022” by Forbes. Founded in 2015 by three young graduates, Paymob quickly has grown to serve 150,000 merchants across the region.

In 2022, Paymob, entered the Pakistani market promising to equip 100,000 merchants and SMEs by mid-2024. How? By disrupting the payment acceptance landscape in Pakistan.

By October 2022, Paymob has already onboarded 400+ SME merchants and launched its e-commerce gateway for merchants and enterprise businesses as well as introduced payment links.

To top it off, the technology is integrated with leading services such as JazzCash to further encourage payment acceptance across a wide variety of customers. With partners such as Bank Alfalah, NIFT and Kalpay under their belt – Paymob is comfortably poised to deliver on all the promises they have made so far.

“Disruption at its core is about reinventing an existing process – making it more efficient and more convenient. It is about a mindset. A mindset focused on continuous improvement,” says Fawad. And it is no wonder that he can describe disruption so eloquently. Fawad is a fin-tech product specialist who knows exactly where the meat lies: in the product.

With a resume boasting of extensive product deployment at companies such as MCB, NIFT, and Bank Alfalah, Fawad Abdul Kader knows that there is only one way to change the game – to deliver a solution that has no peer.

Paymob’s sophisticated payments technology stack has matured over the years to provide payment solutions to all types of businesses. The aim driving the vision is to enable businesses – irrespective of size and scale, to conveniently collect payments through an online gateway, via payment links, and/or Point of Sale (POS) machines.

The company also introduced an industry first in 2021 – the ability to accept payments directly through smartphones. The key benefit is abundantly clear – merchants in remote areas lacking the funds to maintain a POS machine use an internet-enabled NFC mobile phone to process payments from customers.

After the session, I managed to quickly hunt Fawad down. I asked him if he really thought Pakistan was ready to start transacting digitally with money – he replied, “The most important thing that we can do for merchants is to offer them agility. By simple technical enablement, we reduce their settlement process to days instead of weeks.”

“The potential is immense – 90% of the merchants are first-time users and we’re making sure to show them how Paymob is building their business for them,” he added.

Fund settlement has always been a sore affair for business owners. With no alternatives, they have had to settle with what the issuer dictates; sometimes weeks and many times even months for large volume processing. Paymob has simplified this in one sentence: One-day settlement for account-based settlements and two days for cards.

Reeling from the information and fervently noting down my points, I quickly asked him about the competition. He smiled and replied, “Paymob is here to collaborate with the incumbents. We must replace cash dealing with a better solution. If there is a willingness on both sides, the entire ecosystem benefits.”

Pakistan is a determined nation, and its evolving digital landscape is growing by leaps and bounds. The market is ripe with opportunity and Paymob has zeroed in on an offering that is presently unmatched – a payment acceptance mechanism for every business size.

While it is common knowledge that regulations have always followed innovation, the State Bank has consistently been proactive in its support for the digital ecosystem; issuing digital licenses to different financial service providers and ensuring that there are no hindrances for businesses to succeed.

Whilst globally a recession is underway, countries like Pakistan are catching up to the rest of the world in e-commerce. Will Paymob continue its aggressive go-to-market strategy and launch its state-of-the-art POS machines by the end of the year?

So far, they have signed up enormous businesses such as Daftarkhwan, JB Saeed, and Scents & Stories who would have only been enticed with the promise of something even sweeter down the road. The bets are certainly in Paymob’s favour.