Digital economy enhancement: World Bank flags implementation gaps in USD69.16m project

Business Recorder reported that the World Bank has raised concerns over sluggish disbursements and several implementation shortfalls in Pakistan's USD 69.16 million Digital Economy Enhancement Project. Only USD 8.36 million, equal to 12.09 percent, has been released so far, even though the initiative took effect over two years ago.

Despite that, the Bank described its overall assessment as Moderately Satisfactory for both development progress and implementation, and kept the overall risk at Moderate. Notable steps include NADRA issuing 2.3 million Digital IDs and 6.5 million transactions passing through the National Data Exchange Layer. The PakID Vault now supports 11 kinds of verifiable credentials, and the Enterprise Architecture Framework is finished.

Significant gaps remain: transactions on the data exchange reached 650,000 in August 2026, well below the 13.333 million target for the closing period, and only six entities are integrated against a goal of 40. Only one private-sector entity has joined the exchange against a target of 13, the Pakistan Business Portal has processed no registration transactions, and women make up 9.2 percent of digital service users against a 30 percent target.