- Foree, Urdu word for ‘immediately’, is an app that allows users to aggregate all bank accounts and cards into a single app
- Murtaza Hashwani, CEO of Pakistani conglomerate Hashoo Group, is one of the seed investors and chairman of the Foree board
A digital payment app called Foree that is set to be rolled out in Pakistan in May this year will help boost the global cashless economy, create tens of thousands of jobs in Pakistan and facilitate overseas workers, especially in the Middle East, remit payments back home, Pakistani business mogul and chairman of the board of Foree has said.
The Pakistan government has recently launched a number of digital payment initiatives in a bid to boost financial inclusion and government revenue in a country where only a fraction of economic transactions occur on the books.
Several private-sector digital cash transfer systems that do not require a bank account, such as Jazzcash operated by telecommunications company Jazz, and Easypaisa operated by telecommunications company Telenor Pakistan, are already available in Pakistan but the Foree app is unique: it allows users to aggregate all their bank accounts and cards into a single app and carry out seamless domestic transactions at marginal cost.
Users do not have to move money between different accounts using online banking and the service is unlike wallets, which only allow limited transaction facilities.
“Foree will be the first online payment system in Pakistan,” Murtaza Hashwani, deputy-chairman and CEO of Hashoo Group, and now the chairman of the board for Foree, told Arab News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
“Our ambition is global. This is going to be rolled out regionally in the Middle East and then we would like to take this globally,” he said, adding that around nine million Pakistanis abroad could help make Foree (which is the Urdu language word for ‘immediately’) a globally downloaded app.
The app will also help boost e-commerce in the country and allow people to shop online from international brands and companies through real-time payments.
Foree’s management estimates the payment solution will help create at least 100,000 jobs in Pakistan alone in the next two years and create points of sales [POS] not only in cities, but also in far-flung areas of the country as people won’t rely only on cash to make purchases.
“Foree will create POS… more and more people will be able to transact without any cash even in remote villages,” Hashwani said.
As a first step, the company is working with Meezan Bank, which has at least one million customers, to launch the app in Pakistan in May.
About privacy and data protection of Foree users, Hashwani said all of the company’s servers were in Pakistan as part of a requirement to get licensed with the central bank.
