Helping to transform a cash-based economy to digital-first is a massive undertaking, but Telenor Microfinance Bank/Easypaisa of Pakistan has risen to the challenge.
That hasn’t been easy, according to CIO Khurram Gul Agha. “Pakistan’s economy is mostly cash-dominated,” he says. It was important to encourage people to get into the habit of using financial services. Scalability was also a factor, as the number of transactions increased dramatically since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the company now hosting approximately 110-120 million transactions a month.
“This platform really gives us the ability to scale up very, very fast. Earlier we used to maybe spin up virtual machines in 2-3 days, but now we can just do scalability in minutes.”
– Hasan Ayaz, Head of Platform Engineering
Head of Platform Engineering Hasan Iyaz says, “This platform really gives us the ability to scale up very, very fast. Earlier we used to maybe spin up virtual machines in 2-3 days, but now we can just do scalability in minutes.” He adds that they can also ship code quickly, and the ability to add environments offers a lot of flexibility.
Gul Agha says that it’s always been the company’s mission to bring transparency and digitization to financial transactions in Pakistan. “If we can change a single person’s life where they don’t have to stand in line in the heat to pay a bill… and they can do that transaction in seconds now… [from] the comfort of their home. This is where the dream comes true.”
