KARACHI – Bank Alfalah has joined forces with Mastercard and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to provide a safe online donation portal to support those in need during the pandemic.

Through the platform, people can now securely donate to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund 2020 from anywhere in the world by using their debit or credit cards.

The initiative is in line with the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) guidelines for banks to take necessary steps to facilitate donations to the Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund 2020.

With Bank Alfalah as the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS) provider, Mastercard as the payments technology partner and NBP as the facilitator with the payment link, the new partnership ensures donors’ convenience, making contributions from across the globe easy and effortless. It also encourages customers to switch to online banking and avoid unnecessary visits to branches.

Commenting on the initiative, Mehreen Ahmed, Group Head Retail, Bank Alfalah said: “Bank Alfalah understands the difficulties that people across Pakistan are facing in the prevailing circumstances, and we aim to go beyond our call of duty in order to help the government during these unprecedented times. We are committed to the government’s vision to fuel the growth of digital payments and to work towards this goal, we are pleased to collaborate with Mastercard’s fully-integrated global payment platform. We encourage people – those who are in Pakistan or even abroad – to donate generously to the PM’s COVID-19 Relief Fund, through this safe channel from the comfort of their homes. Now is the time for us to unite as a nation and emerge stronger than ever.”

“As a leading global payments provider, we’re equipped with the technology to help people during these difficult times,” said Magdy Hassan, Country Manager – Egypt and Pakistan, Mastercard. “This is why we’ve recently made several commitments towards combating the spread and mitigating the impact of COVID-19, including our most recent commitment to connecting 1 billion people to the digital economy by 2025. We’re pleased to partner with Bank Alfalah and NBP to not only enable payments to the donations platform but to also enhance the digital payment ecosystem in Pakistan, so people can use their cards to donate to those who are in need.”

Commenting on this partnership Amin Manji, Head of Technology & Digitalization NBP said: “National Bank of Pakistan is The Nation’s Bank and has always led Government initiatives especially those involving social well-being of the underprivileged. NBP shares SBP’s vision of creating a robust and easily accessible Digital Financial Ecosystem and is continually making headway to ensure we play an instrumental role. NBP collaborated with Bank Alfalah and Mastercard to facilitate the seamless inflow of contributions from around the world. We urge individuals to donate generously to the PM’s COVID-19 Relief Fund and help those amongst us rendered destitute as a result of the Pandemic.”

The Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund 2020 was launched to be utilized to provide food and cash to about 14 million people in need who have been severely affected by the lockdown. The option to donate to the fund will remain in place until the pandemic is over.