Kurdistan
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani speaks at the launch ceremony for e-Psule on Mount Korek on February 10, 2025. Photo: KRG
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Tuesday inaugurated a new digital payment platform that allows citizens to pay government bills electronically through participating banks, as part of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) push toward digital transformation.
The platform, called e-Psule - meaning bill in Kurdish - has been approved by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), with Deloitte appointed to audit its payment processes. A KRG statement said the system, launched under Barzani’s supervision, “is a unified national system for delivering government bills digitally.”
Speaking at the launch event on Mount Korek, Barzani described the platform as “a great national achievement for all the people of Kurdistan,” adding that it is “an initiative for all the people of Iraq to benefit from.”
Ali al-Alaq, governor of the CBI, who also attended the event, said developing Iraq’s financial sector is “incomplete without coordination in efforts with the Kurdistan Region.”
According to the KRG, the platform’s approval by the CBI marks “an important and pivotal milestone within the government's strategy for digital transformation, which puts an end to decades of cash transactions and paper routines.”
Initially, e-Psule will enable citizens in the Kurdistan Region to pay electricity bills without the need to visit government offices. The KRG said use of the platform is free and that “the citizen bears no additional charge (commission) when making payments through the application or through authorized partner channels.”
The government stressed that “no deduction can be made without the citizen's consent from their salary or bank account,” noting that the system displays bill details clearly “so that the citizen knows precisely what they are paying for.”
Payments can be made through the e-Psule application as well as other local electronic wallets, according to the statement.
The launch comes as part of the KRG’s broader digitization drive. The MyAccount project, announced in 2023 by Prime Minister Barzani, aims to digitize salary payments and improve public sector disbursement by enabling employees to receive salaries directly through the banking system.
According to the MyAccount website, more than 900,000 public sector beneficiaries had registered for bank accounts under the scheme as of late December.
The platform, called e-Psule - meaning bill in Kurdish - has been approved by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), with Deloitte appointed to audit its payment processes. A KRG statement said the system, launched under Barzani’s supervision, “is a unified national system for delivering government bills digitally.”
Speaking at the launch event on Mount Korek, Barzani described the platform as “a great national achievement for all the people of Kurdistan,” adding that it is “an initiative for all the people of Iraq to benefit from.”
Ali al-Alaq, governor of the CBI, who also attended the event, said developing Iraq’s financial sector is “incomplete without coordination in efforts with the Kurdistan Region.”
According to the KRG, the platform’s approval by the CBI marks “an important and pivotal milestone within the government's strategy for digital transformation, which puts an end to decades of cash transactions and paper routines.”
Initially, e-Psule will enable citizens in the Kurdistan Region to pay electricity bills without the need to visit government offices. The KRG said use of the platform is free and that “the citizen bears no additional charge (commission) when making payments through the application or through authorized partner channels.”
The government stressed that “no deduction can be made without the citizen's consent from their salary or bank account,” noting that the system displays bill details clearly “so that the citizen knows precisely what they are paying for.”
Payments can be made through the e-Psule application as well as other local electronic wallets, according to the statement.
The launch comes as part of the KRG’s broader digitization drive. The MyAccount project, announced in 2023 by Prime Minister Barzani, aims to digitize salary payments and improve public sector disbursement by enabling employees to receive salaries directly through the banking system.
According to the MyAccount website, more than 900,000 public sector beneficiaries had registered for bank accounts under the scheme as of late December.
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