PayPal a Financial technology company is not coming directly to Pakistan by opening up its office or allowing payment through its account but has agreed to sign an agreement with a company called Payoneer (a digital payment service) to secure the money of freelancers from abroad and send it into the account of the recipient’s bank here in the country.
It is yet to be seen how much this company, Payoneer, will charge for its services for transferring the amount from both sides, PayPal and working freelancers. Almost 4 million freelancers operate in Pakistan, of which around 1.5 million work permanently. It has been considered a growing marvel in Pakistan, especially among youth with IT skills.
To place this system, PayPal in Pakistan and Payoneer are signing an agreement. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom Pakistan also signed an agreement with PayPal in Pakistan to create a framework for operationalizing this arrangement. The Ministry of IT & Telecom will officially reveal this mechanism on January 11, 2024.
Now, the freelancers could open dollar accounts, but they would have to retain 50 percent of the amount in US dollars in their accounts. The caretaker government, therefore, fulfilled one of the major needs of freelancers in the country. The Federal Minister for IT & Telecom, Dr Umair Saif, stated in a video message that there was good news that Pakistani freelancers could receive their money through Pay Pal.
“We have designed a mechanism under which there would be no need to open a PayPal account. Now anyone outside Pakistan could send money through its PayPal account, which could be received in Pakistani banks.”