Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said Raast, Pakistan’s national instant payment system, is playing a key role in promoting financial inclusion and accelerating the shift to a cashless economy.

Meeting members of the Raast Board at the Prime Minister’s House, he called for faster efforts to encourage businesses to use the platform for routine payments.

The prime minister congratulated the newly appointed board members and expressed confidence they would further strengthen the system’s performance.

The board briefed him that more than three billion transactions worth about Rs80 trillion have been processed through Raast so far. They said the platform has over 48 million users, with 53 financial institutions integrated as partners.

Officials said Raast operates under the State Bank of Pakistan, with all but one board member drawn from the private sector based on professional expertise.

The prime minister was also told that work is underway to migrate all business-to-government and government-to-business payments to Raast nationwide.

“Raast provides every citizen with a secure and reliable digital payment platform,” officials said during the briefing.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Khan Cheema, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani, the SBP governor, Raast board members, the CEO and senior officials.