Baghdad – IA – Nassar Al-Hajj
The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, confirmed today, Sunday, that the government’s strategy encouraged citizens to enter the digital payments climate, while indicating that cash use will witness a gradual closure in the interest of digital financial inclusion, starting next year, 2025.
Saleh said to the (INA): “The customs and traditions that remained prevalent in the practice of cash request behavior according to primitive cash methods in settling financial and commercial transactions, are not consistent today with the developments of the modern digital institutional society in our country, especially the change in the settlement of financial transactions and the gradual abandonment.” On the use of direct cash payment methods for the benefit of digital payments.
He added, “The behaviors of payment, delivery, settlement of financial rights, and settlement of transactions began to be reflected in the cash demand function, which began to change behaviorally in the interest of dealing with a modern pattern imposed by digital payments in the country.”
He continued, “Since the government launched the electronic payment strategy a few months ago, the public has begun, for the first time in our country, to direct its will to enter the (second phase) in the digital payments climate, by moving from withdrawing dues in cash via payment cards and dealing with the inherited payment methods based on… Cash payment for transactions, by shifting towards keeping his money inside his bank accounts to allow him to use the same payment cards many times within the framework of levels of high and renewable digital payment in settling various transactions within the citizen’s daily life.”
He pointed out, “The second phase of digital payments represents an accelerated development to reach an advanced digital stage in banking life by establishing digital banks, as three issues helped in this, namely the increasing use of mobile phones in settling digital transactions, and the second is the development of the numbers of opening bank accounts that support digital payments activity.” And the third is the rapid growth of digital government collection.”
Saleh stressed, “By the middle of this year, government collections will shift almost completely to payment via credit cards and other approved digital payment methods, which all fuel stations are witnessing today, leading to the payment of taxes, fees, wages, and government transactions, all of which will be via digital payment cards.”
He pointed out that “large groups of private sector institutions and individuals have begun to engage rapidly in settling their payments by feeding each other’s accounts with easy transfer, for example (feeding their digital cards) to settle rights between them digitally, in addition to using devices.” pos And similar technological means of assisting payments, which have become widespread and accessible in our country.”
He continued, “Starting from the year 2025 onwards, payment habits within the economic community will shift towards a completely different digital life, so that electronic payment cards become one of the modern customs in changing the monetary behavior of society, and cash consumption will witness a gradual closure in favor of digital financial inclusion, and then cash leakages will move in their current form, which It is still lying outside the banking system, making its natural way into the banking system itself, automatically and under the influence of the new environment of digital payments.”
He added, “The use of digital payments has added, over the past few months, millions of new bank accounts for adults who have not previously dealt with the banking system,” expecting that “in the coming months, bank accounts will cover the adult generation, as electronic payment cards are linked to the bank account itself.”
He pointed out that “cash liquidity will automatically move into the banking system, which will help increase levels of certainty and reduce liquidity risks in the banking system itself, which will encourage levels of cash credit granted to the public for the purposes of economic activity and at the same time help ensure the flow of state cash revenues within account developments.” The unified treasury, which at the same time maintains moderate growth rates in the growth of public liquidity to match its growth inversely with the escalating growth in the use of digital payments.”