ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has asserted that the inclusion of women in financial mainstream, as well as their digital empowerment, was vital for economic stability besides many other intangible benefits.
“A financially independent woman could not be exploited,” the President said while addressing the launching ceremony of State Bank’s policy on “Banking on Equality” to ensure women’s financial inclusion on Friday.
First Lady Samina Alvi, parliamentarians, State Bank Governor Raza Baqir, SBP Deputy Governor Seema Kamil, CEOs of banks and financial institutions attended the event.
He further said the women’s financial inclusion would also significantly improve country’s GDP as women were more reliable handlers of the financial products as had also been experienced in Bangladesh.
“With the changing dynamics of the society marking minimizing needs of physical labor, the women could easily play their role in the society by using internet and other digital tools,” he added.
He continued, “With the five pillars of diversity, inclusion, accessibility, transparency and leadership, the policy has set target of around 20 million women bank accounts by 2023. Currently, only 13% of the bank staff and 1% of branchless banking agents are women.”
According to the policy, the financial institutions would be asked to ensure minimum 20% female participation in workforce by 2024. President Alvi said opening a bank account of women was just one method of financial inclusion as it would open up more avenues.
“A secure environment is inevitable for the women to make them play a productive role as the security of their children was always family’s top priority,” he added.
The president said it was unfortunate that Pakistan lagged behind in number of women bank account holders comparing other Muslim countries and appreciated the SBP’s target of 20 million women bank accounts by 2023 as proposed in the policy.
President Alvi urged the women parliamentarians to aware women about the loan amount specified by banks for women which currently remained under-utilized.
Earlier, State Bank Governor Raza Baqir presented a copy of policy to the president which will assign outreach targets for saving and credit products to enhance access, usage and quality of financial services to women.
In his address, Raza Baqir said the policy had been finalized after detailed consultation with all the stakeholders. “Pakistan lagged far behind among Muslim countries vis-à-vis number of women bank account holders which was 70% in Saudi Arabia, UAE 76%, Turkey 54% and Malaysia 82%,” he added.
