Building Digital Public Infrastructure: Lessons Learned from Kazakhstan
Digital payments serve as an essential gateway for global populations to access an array of digitized public and private services. Over the past decade, especially post-Covid-19, there has been a rapid expansion in digital payment usage as consumers and businesses moved online, valuing the convenience, speed, security, and transparency these payments offer.
This mass adoption has led to powerful network effects, enabling widespread person-to-person transactions and expanding markets for small businesses. The digital payment revolution has also spurred the growth of fintech and e-commerce sectors, driving consumption and promoting income growth. Governments have promoted digital payments and financial inclusion through digital public infrastructures (DPIs), which include digital identity, payment, and data exchange systems. In 2023, the G20 envisioned DPIs as “interoperable, open, and inclusive systems supported by technology to provide essential, society-wide, public and private services” that can play “a critical role in accelerating digital transformation in an inclusive way"1.
Kazakhstan's digital transformation journey provides valuable lessons for developing and emerging markets considering DPIs. The Kazakh case is noteworthy for a number of reasons: online banking usage in Kazakhstan surged from 25% of the population in 2018 to nearly 100% in 2024; digital transactions increased from 7% of all transactions in 2014 to 89% in 2024; and public services and government transactions have been nearly fully digitized, in part thanks to the government's partnership with banks. Over 90% of the economically active population uses the eGov platform. Additionally, digital transactions per capita rose dramatically from approximately $20 per capita in 2014 to $13,800 in 2023.
This transition has fueled the rapid growth of Kazakhstan's fintech and e-commerce sectors. The Kazakh model highlights the importance of private sector leadership in digital transformation and the significance of public policies that promote competition and create level playing fields in digital payment services. This paper by Kati Suominen, in collaboration with Visa, outlines key policy measures and design choices that have driven Kazakhstan's success, offering lessons for other nations on similar digital transformation paths.
Download the full paper here.
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1According to earlier work by the Nextrade Group and applying a stricter definition, there were 101 DPIs in place. On the 2024, DPI map created by the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, there were 132 identity systems and 156 payment systems across 132 countries; 134 data exchange systems were studied, but more than half of the systems were not active yet.
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