NUR-SULTAN – The Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov announced plans to introduce the social wallet pilot project in Nur-Sultan, Pavlodar and Akkol by the end of 2021 at the Oct. 20 meeting of the commission under the President of Kazakhstan.
Its main goal is to provide targeted social assistance through social support instruments.
According to the minister, some shortcomings have been identified in the current system for payment of social benefits. These are the absence of a proactive enrollment mechanism, restrictions on opening bank accounts in the presence of arrears or arrests, lack of information on the use of social assistance funds, mistakes made by people in providing bank details, and high budget expenditures to cover bank fees.
To eliminate these issues, the President instructed the government to develop the social wallet program in his address to the nation in 2020.
The testing of social wallet and business wallet services in pilot regions will help to collect proposals and comments from the public and businesses for the improvement of the quality of service, identify shortcomings and eliminate them before launching in other regions.
One of the main advantages of the digital system are the registration of social assistance in one working day and the instant opening of social wallets.
Social wallets can be opened for all people on the basis of the individual identification number (IIN). Payments can be made through a smartphone app or via SMS confirmation.
The system of instant payments will be developed in connection with banks. To launch the project, it is necessary to develop an algorithm for the phased transfer of benefits and social payments to the social wallet, said Sultanov.
More services and operations will be introduced by the end of 2022. It includes expansion of the functions of a personal account, connection to various online stores and other services.
The ministry intends to integrate the digital wallet with the National Distribution System and expand the types of social payments to be credited to the social wallet in 2023-2024.
