Page 16 - CMA Journal (July-August 2025)

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Exclusive Interview

“

For those aspiring to enter
fintech, immerse yourself in startups,
either by joining high-growth
companies or launching your own.
Master at least one hard skill deeply—
software engineering, data analysis,
finance, product design, or
another—so that you can contribute
meaningfully and then broaden your

capabilities on the job “

Mr. Danish A. Lakhani

Founder & CEO - NayaPay

ICMA: You have had an impressive journey from instance, today there is no fixed timeline for bill uploads,
studying at Brown, Stanford, and Harvard to leading forcing reminder systems to rely on heuristics, and
companies like Cybernet and founding NayaPay. fraudsters move from targeting one institution to
What inspired you to take the leap into fintech? another because of limited data sharing. These are the
kinds of gaps we need to solve collectively.
Danish Lakhani: My academic journey was long, but I
regret not taking more entrepreneurial risks earlier. I urge At the same time, we invest heavily in our own products,
young professionals to join high-growth startups or start aiming to make them 10x better—faster, more intuitive,
their own ventures. NayaPay was inspired by the rise of and more affordable. With smartphones and the
fintechs such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, CashApp, and internet rapidly becoming accessible, we want to be the
Venmo, which transformed everyday payments in their financial platform of choice for under-35s and for
markets. I was also convinced that the next generation businesses of all sizes.
would access banking primarily through their mobile
ICMA: How is NayaPay using data and analytics to
devices, a trend already well established globally. The
introduction of the EMI license by the SBP made it the improve customer experience and drive innovation in
the financial sector?
right moment to bring this vision to Pakistan.
Danish Lakhani: We take a data-informed approach to
ICMA: As the Founder and CEO of NayaPay, how do
you see your leadership shaping the future of digital innovation. By analyzing transaction patterns, user
cohorts, and feature engagement, we identify friction
payments and financial inclusion in Pakistan?
points and refine the customer journey. Real-time
Danish Lakhani: Too often, leaders focus only on big monitoring helps us detect anomalies and resolve them
visions. While vision is important, meaningful progress before they affect users. In terms of fraud, we track
comes from reasoning backwards and clearly defining behavioral patterns to proactively off-board bad actors
and executing the first, second, and third steps. At and apply similar analysis at onboarding to filter out
NayaPay, I see our role as working with the broader high-risk users. This combination of proactive monitoring
ecosystem—regulators, industry participants, and iterative product improvements allows us to keep

government, businesses, and consumers—to address the experience seamless and secure.
specific problems that have an outsized impact. For
14 ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, Jul-Aug 2025