KARACHI: According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), financial inclusion, or the percentage of adults with bank accounts, increased from 16% in 2015 to 64% in 2023.
In order to increase the general public’s access to and use of formal financial services, SBP has been implementing two National Financial Inclusion strategies (NFIS) since 2015: 2015–18 and 2019–23.
“As a result, financial inclusion level, broadly defined as the share of adult population having a bank account, has jumped from 16 per cent in 2015 to 64 per cent in 2023,” the central bank stated in the NFIS report, which was released on Monday and included many targets for 2024–2028.
Furthermore, specific steps have been outlined to revolutionize priority sector financing in the areas of SME, housing, agriculture, microfinance, and sustainable finance in order to spur inclusive economic growth and development in the nation. The ultimate goal is to improve the well-being of low-income and underprivileged population segments.
According to the SBP financial inclusion report, the number of women with accounts rose from 13 million in 2018 to 31 million in 2023.
“The primary goals for NFIS 2024-28 are to increase financial inclusion in Pakistan to 75 percent and close the gender gap to 25 percent by 2028,” the paper stated.
“The number of depositors has increased from 54 million in 2018 to 88 million in 2023, registering a growth of 63 percent during the period, as a result of these initiatives,” the research stated.
According to the research, women’s financial inclusion improved from 23 percent to 47 percent as the number of female depositors increased from 13.1 million in 2018 to 31.2 million in 2023.
In a similar vein, Islamic banking’s proportion of the banking industry as a whole grew dramatically, reaching 23% of deposits, 19% of assets, and 29% of branch networks.
The research claims that improved public-private collaborations, supporting legislative frameworks, and the deployment of the two new NFIS-leveraged technologies have all contributed to the advancement of financial inclusion. Specifically, programs like Raast, Asaan Mobile Account, and Asaan Digital Account have made it easier to use and access official financial services.
According to the report, the ingrained cultural preference for cash makes it difficult to broaden the scope of digital financial services expressly to meet the demands of the underbanked parts of society.
SBP’s Banking on Equality Policy (BOE) has contributed to the improvement of women’s financial inclusion in the nation in addition to the digitization of financial services.
The gender gap decreased from 47 percent in 2018 to 34 percent in 2023, according to the report, because 31 million adult women had at least one bank account as of December 2023, compared to 13 million in 2018.
SBP is introducing the third edition of NFIS 2024-28 to further the financial inclusion agenda. It intends to build on the achievements of the previous two strategies, address enduring financial inclusion bottlenecks, and leverage additional digitalization initiatives to promote new innovations.