KARACHI: Pakistan’s financial inclusion level increased to 69 per cent, with the gender gap reduced to 29 per cent in 2025, as 6.8 million new unique accounts were added in the banking system, over 55 per cent of which were opened by women, the central bank report said on Tuesday.
In its first Annual Progress Report for 2025 on the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2024-2028, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that all the yearly headline targets for the last year were met. The financial inclusion level rose from a baseline of 64 per cent in 2023. The gender gap in financial inclusion stood at 34 per cent in the same year.
The NFIS aims to raise the financial inclusion rate to 75 per cent and reduce the gender gap to 25 per cent by 2028. The implementation of the NFIS began in January 2025, with the vision of enhancing the social and economic well-being of the people in Pakistan. Out of the 52 actions outlined in the strategy, 10 have been completed, and progress on the remaining actions is largely on track.
The SBP report also highlighted a significant increase in priority sector lending reflected in its growing share of private-sector loans. The share of agricultural finance in total private sector credit rose from 9.0 per cent in 2023 to 11 per cent in 2025, approaching the June 2028 target of 12 per cent.
To promote inclusive economic growth, actions were targeted towards improving the priority sector financing ecosystem. This initiative aligns with evolving international practices, utilises digital technologies to improve credit accessibility, and supports the economic well-being of rural and low-income populations, as noted in the report. The Zarkheze-Asaan Digital Qarza, the country’s first end-to-end digital agriculture lending platform, was launched. It provides in-kind, collateral-free loans with minimal processing time. The Zarkheze platform is accessible to all crop farmers nationwide. So far, 21 banks and approximately 10,000 vendors and merchants have joined the platform. Additionally, 22,339 farmers have registered, and loan requests totalling Rs1.9 billion have been approved.
Last year, the share of SME financing increased to 8.0 per cent, up from 6 percent in December 2023. A target of 10 per cent for SME lending has been set for 2028. The share of microfinance within the private sector credit remained unchanged at 5 percent. Furthermore, the share of digital payments in overall transactions surged to 70 per cent.
To reduce the heavy reliance on cash and to promote digital transactions, steps were taken to expand interoperable payment systems, increase the adoption of mobile wallets, and integrate digital payments across various sectors, the report said. Among these efforts is the successful deployment of the Raast Person to Merchant (P2M) use case, which has onboarded over 2 million merchants, now accepting digital payments through QR codes. A regulatory sandbox was established in May of last year to encourage the development of innovative digital financial products and services.
The report noted that specific actions were taken to achieve the financial inclusion target, including increasing access and usage of financial services by identifying financially unservedor underserved areas, developing physical and digital infrastructure, and expanding account ownership and agent networks for individuals and small businesses.
“Pakistan has joined the ranks of countries collecting and dashboarding granular, district-level data on financial inclusion indicators, including deposits, access points, loans, etc.,” it said.One of the achievements included improving access to financial services through various initiatives, according to the report, such as promoting a cashless economy, enabling agent interoperability, and operationalising digital banks. The Pakistan financial inclusion index was developed to provide insight into the country’s level of financial inclusion, allowing for comparison with international benchmarks.
