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Governance and State Effectiveness

Payments Automation and Integration of Salaries in Afghanistan

Our Goal

The objective of the Payments Automation and Integration of Salaries in Afghanistan (PAISA) Project is to support the development of digital government-to-person payments in Afghanistan.

How We Deliver

The Payments Automation and Integration of Salaries in Afghanistan (PAISA) Project has four components to the project, the first component being Biometric identification system for civil servants and pensioners. This component will support the biometric registration and issuance of a unique registration number (URN) to recipients of government salaries and transfers, which will be managed by NSIA. The second component is the integration of the identification, verification and payment systems. The component will focus on the integration of various systems playing different roles in the salary payments. process to achieve full-fledged straight-through processing (STP). This component includes two subcomponents: integration of public financial management infrastructure with digital ID and payments ecosystems, and integration of the national payment’s infrastructure with digital ID Infrastructure. The third component is the expansion of financial services and access points. This component aims to ensure that, with the shift to electronic payments, civil servants, including those hitherto paid by ‘bonded trustees’, and pensioners can either: (i) withdraw cash from their account from safe and convenient locations; or (ii) use their account balance to make cashless payments for goods and services. Finally, the fourth component is the project management. This component will be implemented by MoF and support the provision of resources to carry out the coordination, administrative, social and fiduciary aspects of the project. 

This project is co-finannced with $10 million IDA grant.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

  1. Percentage of civil servants and pensioners biometrically registered and issued a unique identifier for payment purposes (of which female)
  2. Increased efficiency in government payments, as measured by the percentage of civil servants and pensioners who received government payments through electronic channels (of which female) 
  3. Increased capacity for electronic payments, as measured by the number of active financial access points