Data exchange, fintech, and documented economy

The world is rapidly becoming “soft.” Previously, the importance of everything was due to its physical existence, but now things are transforming into software.

This transformation includes currency, which is becoming “soft,” its transfer is becoming “soft,” and its loans are becoming “soft.”

The meaning of wealth for humans is also changing. Alongside gold, silver, land, and homes, humans are quickly forming soft wealth, which is called data.

The more data one possesses, the wealthier they are considered, whether they are an individual or an institution.

A few days ago, when my children insisted on eating pizza, I searched the internet for the nearest pizza restaurant. I did this search on Google, and we went to have pizza. Generation Z takes photos before eating. As soon as the children entered the restaurant, they took pictures and started uploading them on Facebook. To our surprise, almost every second post on their Facebook profiles was related to pizza restaurants. Within seconds, Google had sold my information to Facebook, and Facebook started sending pizza advertisements. This was all possible due to data and its analysis.

After that, I conducted an experiment on YouTube. I played the same episode of a Pakistani drama simultaneously on my and my wife’s mobile phones. YouTube showed different types of ads on both mobiles. These ads are based on past behavior, gender, financial status, age, and browsing history.

Therefore, every company and every country strives to establish the best possible database. Ambani invited Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to his son’s wedding. Officially, they were attending the wedding, but reports suggest that the two digital giants agreed to establish their data centers in India through Ambani. This will not only help Ambani expand his other businesses within India but also in other countries worldwide, allowing him to easily find buyers for his products based on this data.

A conference on consumer data titled Digital Supply Chain Financing was held in Karachi, where Pakistan Banks Association Chairman Zafar Masood stated that there is a lot of digital data available in Pakistan, but it is not being utilized. He said the most important data is held by the government and its affiliated institutions, including NADRA and power utilities, while in the private sector, power utilities and telecom companies have significant data. Zafar Masood suggested that the government should use NADRA as a utility rather than a profit-making institution.

Zafar Masood proposed a data exchange to gather the various databases in different institutions for the financial industry and other consumer services.

He said this would benefit both the financial industry and the government. The financial industry could design financial products according to consumer needs and demands, while other service providers could decide what kind of services consumers require based on this data.

In Pakistan, there are different levels of banking, such as large commercial and Islamic banks that primarily serve big businesses and financially well-off individuals, and microfinance banks that provide small loans. However, technology is also introducing new types of financial institutions called fintech, or financial technology businesses. These fintech companies are rapidly growing due to the introduction of a new financial transaction system called Raast by the State Bank, allowing consumers to conduct transactions digitally without additional costs.

Fintech needs to focus on small villages and towns rather than big cities, where banking facilities are not available. People can use digital channels for daily expenses, and shopkeepers can also make payments digitally. If needed, loans can be approved and provided within seconds based on their data. These loans can range from a few days to a few weeks.

Promoting digital payments.in the country will discourage cash transactions, and instead of transferring currency notes from one place to another, money will be transferred from one account to another through soft means. It is hoped that soon, every small shop and stall will have a QR code scanner for buyers to make payments. The faster this happens, the more it will help document the economy, for which data and its analysis are crucial.

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