World Bank review finds Pakistan’s Digital Economy Enhancement Project has built key infrastructure but faces slow disbursement, weak adoption and major participation gaps.
The World Bank has flagged slow financial disbursement and significant implementation gaps in Pakistan’s $69.16 million Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP), despite progress in building key digital infrastructure.
According to the Bank’s latest review, only $8.36 million, or 12.09% of the project’s total financing, had been disbursed, leaving $60.80 million unspent. The project became effective in May 2024 and is scheduled to close in July 2028.
Despite the challenges, the World Bank has rated both progress toward the development objective and overall implementation progress as “Moderately Satisfactory.” The project’s overall risk rating remains “Moderate,” indicating that the initiative is considered capable of recovery rather than requiring a fundamental redesign.
DEEP includes major components aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s digital economy, governance and service delivery capabilities, alongside the Pakistan Business Portal and project management.
Some infrastructure milestones have been achieved. NADRA has issued 2.3 million Digital IDs, while 6.5 million transactions have been processed through the National Data Exchange Layer, which is intended to enable secure data exchange between government systems. The PakID Vault supports 11 types of verifiable credentials, while the Enterprise Architecture Framework has been completed. The Data Governance Policy has also been disclosed for public consultation.
However, adoption remains substantially behind project targets. Transactions through the National Data Exchange Layer stood at 650,000 in August 2026, compared with a closing target of 13.333 million. Six entities have been integrated with the national data exchanger against a target of 40 by November 2027, while only one private-sector entity has been connected against a target of 13.
The Pakistan Business Portal has processed no Registration, Licenses, Certificates and Other (RLCO) transactions so far, compared with a target of 4,000 annual transactions by November 2027. B2G payments and RLCO services completed online also remain at zero against a 50% target.
Women’s participation is another major concern. Women accounted for 9.2% of users of digitally enabled services, compared with a closing-period target of 30%. Youth-user data was not available for the review.
The World Bank has called for a time-bound service prioritization and onboarding strategy involving the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, the Pakistan Digital Authority, and federal and provincial governments. It also wants key digital governance frameworks formally adopted and operationalized, along with completion of the feasibility study for the National Fiberization Plan.
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