Freelancers in Pakistan to Start Receiving Payments from PayPal in February

(CTN News) – A pilot project allowing payments to 10,000 freelancers through PayPal is slated to launch in February, according to Dr. Umar Saif, the Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication in Pakistan. This is a major breakthrough for the country’s freelancing population.

Dr. Saif announced during his speech during the Tech Destination Pakistan event when E-Rozgar Centers were launched nationwide.

Freelancers to Access PayPal Payments Through Third-Party Intermediary”

According to Dr. Umar Saif, a pilot program allowing 10,000 Pakistani freelancers to begin accepting payments through PayPal will begin in February. He went on to say that March is when the program will be expanded, so all freelancers in the nation can use PayPal and Stripe.

Even though PayPal isn’t setting up shop in Pakistan, Dr. Saif explained that they have struck a deal to let people send money to one other using PayPal through a middleman.

Thanks to this groundbreaking program, there is no need to sign up for PayPal accounts for independent contractors. Freelancers will instead receive payments sent directly to their PayPal accounts from customers outside the nation.

Freelancers need to show that they have an account on a site like Fiverr, Upwork, Elance, Toptal, or Crossover, according to the minister, who emphasized the government’s attempts to simplify the procedure.

Freelancers could keep half of their profits in dollars and get a debit card for domestic and international transactions, according to his proposed regulation.

In a public-private collaboration, Dr Umar Saif disclosed that the government had set aside significant sums to create E-Rozgaar centres nationwide. These hubs will encourage entrepreneurial spirit and freelancing by providing low-interest loans to eligible individuals and businesses.

Forty of the 250 centres planned for Pakistan under the E-Rozgaar program are either up and running or will be by February 19, 2024.

On top of that, 75,000 IT graduates will take their first standardized quality test on January 15, as Dr. Saif also revealed. The Industry Placement Program connects qualified individuals with employers willing to hire them and provides financial incentives to those businesses.

The government also intends to address the industry’s demand for highly trained workers by providing 16,000 people with worldwide certification training in technologies like Oracle financials, Salesforce, Cisco, and Microsoft.

Revenue from information technology has increased by 13% in the last month thanks to government initiatives like the Specialized IT Zones.

The actions of the IT ministry to increase IT exports and promote freelancers were praised by Hassan Nasir Jami, the federal secretary of information technology. Entrepreneurs, students, and developers in Pakistan should take advantage of the potential presented by the country’s thriving IT environment, he said.