‘One million Kurdistanis bankable by the end of 2024,’ says PM Barzani
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – At least one million residents of the Kurdistan Region will be “bankable” by the end of this year, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Thursday.
“Goal: one million Kurdistanis bankable by the end of 2024,” the premier said in a social media post posted with a short clip on X platform, formerly Twitter.
“It will be met,” he pledged.
Barzani referred to the MyAccount project, a financial inclusion program that his cabinet had embarked on as part of the digitalization efforts.
So far, 200,000 Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) employees have been registered to the program that will be rolled out in Sulaimani and Duhok provinces as well.
At least four banks are currently part of the project. The KRG has reached out to other banks to take part in the project.
Goal: one million Kurdistanis bankable by the end of 2024.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrourbarzani) January 25, 2024
It will be met. pic.twitter.com/NBsAASdgDa
Around 1,000 ATMs will be installed as part of the project along with points of sale across the Region. The system is currently being carried out in Erbil.
What is the MyAccount initiative?
MyAccount Initiative is the KRG's financial inclusion program which aims to "provide public sector beneficiaries with a safe, and convenient way to access their salaries."
First initially launched as a pilot project, which included 841 employees at Erbil Children and Maternity Hospital, the program aims to digitalize all the payment systems.
The KRG Department of Information Technology (DIT) designed, tested, piloted, and implemented a secure application for onboarding KRG employees into the My Account initiative in line with the Central Bank of Iraq’s Know-Your-Customer (KYC) needs.