Tajik B2B FinTech Alif Prepares to Enter Pakistan’s Unbanked SMB Market

Alif, a FinTech based in Tajikistan, is looking at getting more into the Pakistan FinTech space to help the unbanked, according to a report Sunday (April 24) from The News International that cited Mahmood Shamsher Ali, the country representative of Alif.

Alif was started in 2014 as a microcredit organization, and the company is one of roughly 20 that applied for a license after the State Bank of Pakistan debuted a digital banking framework.

“The central bank’s initiative has gained tremendous interest from players from around the world,” said Ali, billed as the CEO of Alif Digital Bank after the license approval. “It is rumored that over 20 applications were submitted on the 31st of March, 2022.”

In the report, Ali said the company is looking to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) services and short-term loans by the month, as well as B2B finance and remittances services. Alif said this would make for “interesting times” as legacy banks have been changing their operations, especially with the pandemic.

Additionally, FinTechs have been making innovations with payment methods and other ways to bank. Alif’s position is that Pakistan’s unbanked population and its small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have been overlooked, and the report noted that banks had access to around Rs6 or 7 trillion, with 17-18 trillion transactions still undocumented.

PYMNTS wrote that, in other Pakistan-related news, FinTech startup TAG is also working to help the unbanked, having raised $12 million in a funding round last year.

Related: Pakistan’s TAG Raises $12M in Seed Funding Round

The report noted that there are around 100 million adults in Pakistan who don’t have a bank account — one of the biggest such populations in the world, according to the World Bank. At the time, TAG CEO and founder Talal Ahmad Gondal said the demand for its services had been more than expected.

“Other than many retail customers still on the waiting list, we have also been approached by several organizations to digitize its payroll system that have been dealing in cash until now,” he said, according to the report.