Omar Moeen Malik, Omar Aftab, Huzaifa Ahmed

Early life and education

Malik says he did his bachelor's degree in the United States. Ahmed says the RIZQ idea began while he was studying at LUMS. Ahmed also says his mother had been hosting a dastarkhwan at home for about 15 to 20 years. [1]

Aftab says he comes from a business family and was an activist during his student days. He says he worked on women's rights, HIV AIDS and environment issues. [1]

Easypaisa

Malik is the CXO of Easypaisa. He says he heads Easypaisa and reports to the CEO, and that he is one of its founder members, dating to 2008. Malik says he was part of Telenor Pakistan. He says Easypaisa started in 2008 as a shop-to-shop money transfer service and first targeted blue collar migrant workers as customers. [1]

Malik says it took Easypaisa 12 to 14 years to go from zero to 10 million customers, and expects it to reach 20 million customers in about half the time. He says smartphone penetration started to pick up in 2015. Malik says Easypaisa has the largest agent network today and has become a super app by offering many services. He adds that Easypaisa has exposed its APIs to all third parties. [1]

Malik says digital accounts come in four variants, and that one type has a limit of 10 lakh rupees per month. He says salaried employees who upload a salary slip get higher limits. Customers can apply for an account in the Easypaisa app, on iOS or Android, he says, and checking the submitted photographs takes a period of two working days. Malik says an account becomes level one when a customer presses a thumb on the biometric device at any Easypaisa agent. He also says users can upgrade to level one in real time by scanning their fingerprints with the phone camera. [1]

Malik says Easypaisa is licensed by the State Bank and must meet compliance and KYC requirements. He says Easypaisa has signed up more than 35 large charity organisations. [1]

Views on cash and fintech

Malik says the benefits of eliminating cash would be very large. He estimates that printing one currency note costs more than five or six rupees. He says cash use is large compared with total banking deposits, and that only 20 to 30 million people are unique bank account users. [1]

Malik says smartphone penetration in the country is around 50 to 60 percent and that Visa and Mastercard style models are very expensive. He says the State Bank supports fintech innovation and that many digital retail banking licences will be issued soon. [1]

Malik says this generation is not confused and is very clear. He says he is very hopeful that Pakistan will emerge as the country people always imagined. [1]

Pink Ribbon

Aftab is the CEO of Pink Ribbon. He says he founded Pink Ribbon in Pakistan, and that a woman asked him to help her set up something for breast cancer awareness, which is how he became involved. Aftab says Pink Ribbon was a volunteer driven organisation, and that its model is to run as a social enterprise. [1]

Aftab says TV channels blacked out the campaign launch when it was formally launched in 2004. He says no US or UK aid funds breast cancer work, and that an organisation came back to Pink Ribbon for support ten years later. Aftab says it took Pink Ribbon 20 years to reach this point, and that Pink Ribbon got the government to set up a national screening programme. [1]

Aftab says Pink Ribbon's youth programme has been its most effective awareness work, and that it visits many colleges and universities across Pakistan. He says Pink Ribbon has seen many cases where families hid a patient. Aftab says Pink Ribbon now focuses heavily on lifestyle and food advocacy with the government. [1]

Aftab says Pink Ribbon is setting up Pakistan's first dedicated breast cancer hospital in Lahore, and that diagnostics will be 100 percent free for everyone. He says Pink Ribbon has started a free clinic. Aftab says diagnostics involve costs for doctors and laboratories, so some sustainable revenue is required, and that Pink Ribbon has been running a full-fledged fundraising campaign. He says the zakat campaign relies heavily on digital platforms. [1]

Views on breast cancer

Aftab says one in nine women is at risk of breast cancer and that about 40,000 reported breast cancer deaths occur each year. He says breast cancer is the only cancer whose symptoms are external, that the first step in early detection is self examination, and that survival chances exceed 90 percent when it is diagnosed early. [1]

Aftab says issues related to women are generally tied to a patriarchal society. He says India's breast cancer risk is 1 in 22, and that steroids are used in producing chicken and goat meat. [1]

RIZQ

Ahmed is a co-founder of RIZQ. He says RIZQ was started with two friends, Musa and Qasim, and that the founders started with a single Facebook page over one weekend. Ahmed says food was being wasted at the LUMS cafeteria, and that he and his friends collected food by car at night. [1]

Ahmed says RIZQ's first programme was food wastage reduction. He says RIZQ's first restaurant on board was a well-known restaurant with a branch in Lahore. He also says the team stopped collecting food from one restaurant for three to four months during a difficult period. [1]

Ahmed says the team at first hesitated to ask for money and that the founders did not initially want to become a charity. He says RIZQ moved from asking for general donations to asking for specific products. Ahmed says the last 10 days of March raised more than six months of his earlier fundraising. [1]

Ahmed says RIZQ's ration model gives families a smart card to buy subsidised food from its food banks, and that families go through a screening process before receiving a smart card. He says RIZQ builds small food banks, small touch points where families register. Ahmed says RIZQ focuses on food availability and accessibility through an ecosystem, and that it uses fintech to make its donation cycles easier. [1]

Views on charity and Pakistan

Ahmed says the issue is a matter of social injustice in society, beyond feeding people. He says a figure of 40 percent food waste is cited but lacks statistical backing. Ahmed says charity in Pakistan is undocumented because people do not want to lose the personal connection. [1]

Ahmed says the idea is to build a community based on sharing. He says the larger an organisation grows, the more its processes can be optimised, and that the petrol to deliver a small leftover portion can cost almost as much as the food. He says social enterprises are building sustainability into their business models. [1]

Ahmed says he intensely works with a large pool of youth. He says he has his bets on Pakistan for the next 10 to 20 years and that Pakistan's challenges can be solved. [1]

Timeline

2008

Easypaisa started as a shop-to-shop money transfer service, according to Malik.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Pakistan's cash economy and the fintech fixing it . Thought Behind Things , 2022-04-25.