Despite change of government in Pakistan, the inflows of Roshan Digital Account (RDA) continue to soar. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), RDA inflows have surpassed the $4 billion mark. Moreover, SBP brushed aside social media rumors of overseas Pakistanis withdrawing money from Roshan Digital Accounts.
While reporting about the development, the SBP said in a post on Twitter:
“SBP rebuts fake news on social media about large withdrawals from Roshan Digital Account and slowdown in inflows. So far in April, inflows are very strong at around $86 million and there are no abnormal outflows. Total inflows have now surpassed $4bn”
Also Read: Government launches Ehsaas Initiative for Street Hawkers in Islamabad
Overseas Pakistanis continue to invest
The change of leadership within the country prompted SBP to come up with such statement. The central bank refuted all the rumors which are circulating on the social media. Most of the people were of the view that Overseas Pakistanis will stop sending remittances to the country. However, the statement holds no truth particularly after SBP repudiating the stories.
A large chunk of Pakistanis reside across Middle East, Europe and the USA. The association of these Pakistanis is mostly with PTI – Imran Khan-led political party in the country. Reportedly, the non-resident Pakistanis are forlorn with the political change in Pakistan. However, there has been no significant change in the influx of Roshan Digital Account.
According to the Head of Research at Foundation Securities, Muhammad Awais Ashraf:
“We don’t expect any significant outflow in RDA due to diversification as there are 388,494 accounts through which overseas Pakistanis hold $2.649 billion in Naya Pakistan Certificates and higher return offering”
Read More: NHA announces paid internship program
About Roshan Digital Account
When COVID-19 was at its peak, the SBP permitted close to 9 million Overseas Pakistanis to open a digital account in Pakistan through online process. The previous government i.e. PTI made this project possible to entertain non-resident Pakistanis without them going to visit a bank branch. The working of these accounts is fully integrated with the Overseas Pakistanis homeland’s banking and payment system. Through Roshan Digital Accounts, an Overseas Pakistani can have complete access to funds, payments, transfers and other ecommerce activities.
At the time of writing this article, there are 13 banks at present in Pakistan which are providing digital accounts services to Overseas Pakistanis. Roshan Digital Account can be operated either in Pakistani rupee or any other foreign currency. Besides this very feature, a non-resident Pakistani can also invest in Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPCs) which were issued by PTI’s government. The return on these certificates is available in both conventional and shariah-compliant modes in PKR, Euro, GBP and USD. The diaspora of Pakistanis living outside of the country can also invest in stock exchange and real estate through Roshan Digital Account.
The toppling of PTI’s government will have little to no impact on the deposits largely because Overseas Pakistanis mostly remit funds to support their families in Pakistan.
Do you think the deposits will continue to surge moving forward?
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
