Fahad Shahab wears many hats. A DFI brand ambassador, a Community of Practice (COP) representative, and SME for the Inclusive Digital Economy Development course, he is also the first person in Pakistan to get the Certified Digital Finance Practitioner (CDFP) qualification from Fletcher School Tufts University and Digital Frontiers Institute (DFI). Having been in the payment system industry since 2003, Fahad is one of the founding members of 1LINK, Pakistan’s National Payment Switch. In this role, he leads the product development and business implementation. He holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from NED University Karachi as well as an MBA marketing from the Institute of Business Management.
His time is now focused on projects, consulting assignments, course development and developing community ecosystem for start-ups and global payment system companies, especially working in digital assets and cryptocurrency. Fahad is passionate about human development, economic empowerment, digital money, blockchain, gender and financial services and inclusive digital economy development. ‘I am motivated by the diversity and talents of human beings to see the world and it’s problems with different perspectives and then design innovative solutions to take humanity forward. The notion of human creativity and its application with the sense of community drives my work.’ His research paper titled HumanCoin provides a framework for innovative monetary design to achieve Financial Inclusion.
He describes his CDFP journey as memorable, allowing him to learn and make great friends along the way. Since then, he has enrolled in numerous courses, his favourite being CIDM, LDMM, Bitcoin Back to Future, Gender Blind Spots, Financial Inclusion for All, and Consumer Protection. The CDFP qualification, in his view, gives one the recognition and credibility required to contribute to the industry and helps students with confidence.
The knowledge and frameworks learnt during his CDFP journey have helped him better develop business strategy and fintech products with clear impact on society and increase inclusive development. Using the knowledge and content, Fahad has participated in a focus group and contributed to the discussion in defining the E-commerce Policy of Pakistan.
Fahad is looking forward to applying all the framework and tools learnt during the CDFP journey to apply for consulting and training assignments. Further, he would like to be part of policy making of digital asset and cryptocurrency working with the regulators to prosper this industry in Pakistan and creating real impact in the Financial Inclusion state in the country.
Fahad would highly recommend others to take DFI courses and attend COPs because of the quality of content and credible experts in the field of DFS. This, according to him, is vital and important for new students and other professionals who seek growth in the field of Fintech and Digital Money. ‘I just want to share that my CDFP journey is one of the biggest and most memorable journeys I have experienced throughout my life so far and it has given me self-confidence and belief that if you work diligently towards your goals, you can achieve anything and you become a better person contributing to the success of others as well. So, start your journey and DFS is an exciting space with lots of great career opportunities.’
According to Fahad, the DFI courses are very well designed, researched, and packaged for students and professionals who are in different areas of the fintech ecosystem. ‘The most distinctive feature of DFI courses is the excellent teachers and class coaches who engage with students and help them understand the concept and present their viewpoint with a balanced approach covering pros and cons of each argument’, he says. Additionally, the League of Digital Finance LinkedIn page, as well as the Communities of Practice provide a sense of community to assist students and like-minded individuals who want to actively participate in learning and contribution to various topics pertaining to the world of Digital Money and Payment Systems. ‘I find Community of Practice to be a great part of the DFI brand as it helps to continue engagement with learning and helping people to upskill in the field of DFS’. The learning experience is enhanced by the webinars and COP meetings which provide an opportunity to meet with guest speakers which bring their unique experience of payments and digital banking. Further it also helps to connect with students and professionals from other countries and share and learn from their experience in the DFS space.
As the COP Facilitator in Karachi, Pakistan Fahad’s role is to support students to understand the DFI campus platform, content of the course and how to best engage with the in-campus community to have more value and discussions. The COP meetings are a great way for students to engage the course content and to meet guest speaker from the industry who share the practical knowledge to all the students. For him personally, the COP meetings are a great way to represent DFI in Pakistan. COP meetings help him connect with students and professionals to learn and apply the knowledge in a country context and share minutes with the DFI team.
Fahad has been instrumental in the formation of the Association of Financial Professionals in Pakistan, whose aim is to build capacity and jobs in DFS space and help the public and private sector see DFS as a major segment to invest the resources. He hopes that this association will have an impact on the growth of employment in the DFS space with good talents and help the government and private sector realize the importance of DFS in economic growth. His hope is that the association will enhance the upskilling vision of DFI and build capacity among different business sectors working in the country.
What about his role as a brand ambassador for DFI? Fahad sees it as an opportunity to build relationship and businesses with corporates and individuals in a direct manner serving their capacity building needs in DFS. Through this role, he can ensure the capacity building in DFS is achieved through a consistent business strategy with quality and credible content which is relevant to current digitalization goals. Through his involvement with the DFI platform, he has successfully established business partnership with banks, payment system providers and government institutions, especially in academic circles, to build capacity of students and professionals to upskill them in subjects like Digital Money, Blockchain, Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion to prepare them for the new digital economy.
Fahad has also collaborated with DFI to develop a syllabus for the Digital Economy course. His role in developing the course spanned from research to refining the content. The course is currently available to FSD network. However, from 2022, this course will be publicly launched from the DFI platform to be enrolled by any one throughout the world. It is a unique, well designed course which provides the student fundamentals of the Digital Economy subjects and different themes like Inclusion, Gender and job creation which impact the success or failure of the new era of Digitalization.
Fahad envisions a future in which the public and private sector work in collaboration, rather than in silos, to develop the DFS Space. He would like to see a clear 5-year plan building the Pakistan Digital Economy focusing on digital skills, digital infrastructure, and digital entrepreneurship / jobs; a plan that will make it inclusive to all segments of population. He would like to play an active role as an advisor and project lead to complete projects with clear milestones to achieve Pakistan Digital Economy vision.
Thank you, Fahad, for sharing your achievements with us and we look forward to more collaborations between you and Digital Frontiers Institute!
*For more information on Pakistan association, contact Fahad on fahad@digitalfrontiers.org or call +92 300 2456604.
(Article originally shared on Digital Frontiers Institute on 17 June 2021)