Karachi, Pakistan, 9 April 2020 - Habib Bank Limited (HBL) has partnered with the Government of Pakistan to enable the delivery of the Ehsaas Emergency Cash programme, the largest social safety net initiative in Pakistan’s history.

This programme has been launched by the Government of Pakistan to support the daily wagers and piece-rate workers who have suffered from the lockdown in the country due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

HBL is leading this effort across Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab and ICT, in disbursing approximately PKR 90 billion to an estimated 7.5 million beneficiaries. The new initiative builds on an existing programme between HBL and Ehsaas, known as Kafaalat (meaning sufficiency) which provides support to 3 million beneficiaries and benefits the most deserving women across the country. HBL will now expand its contribution to provide emergency cash assistance of PKR 12,000 per family.

HBL is one of the two Ehsaas exclusive funds disbursement partners selected to enable the payment of emergency cash.

“We are honoured to expand our partnership with Ehsaas and to play our part in assisting the Government of Pakistan during this difficult time,” said Muhammad Aurangzeb, President and CEO, HBL.

“We fully support the Prime Minister of Pakistan in this initiative and laud the support given by the Provincial Governments for the programme.

“While the Coronavirus crisis continues to develop and cause uncertainty to all of us, HBL is keenly aware of its duty to support Pakistan at this difficult time,” he said. “The Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme brings together various programmes for poverty alleviation into a single platform while leveraging the role of the private sector and digital technologies. HBL’s national presence, large distribution network, branchless banking platform HBL Konnect and investment in technology and talent, enables the Bank to undertake this huge task.”

Dr Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety and Chairperson BISP, stated that through the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme, the Government will provide social protection to more than 12 million deserving families affected by the economic downturn due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The Government has developed a detailed beneficiary identification process, SMS campaign, district level verification procedure, wealth profiling criteria, and payment mechanism, thus ensuring rule based implementation to benefit the most deserving.

For more information:

Semin Abdulla
Email: info@akdn.org