Gender-segregated data crucial for financial inclusion: Experts

Bangladesh has been making good progress in financial inclusion for the last few years, but it needs more development and a wider coverage, which should be based on gender-segregated data, experts said.
 

The government prioritised financial inclusion in the last decade and implemented measures through organisations and strategies, including National Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Alliance for

Financial Inclusion, the Bangladesh Bank and social safety net, said Anik Muntasir Chowdhury, consultant at MicroSave Consulting, at a webinar on Thursday. 

For more progress, measures like assessing well-being through key financial indicators, improving the delivery of financial services and products to key groups, providing well-defined tools for regulators and works towards effective financial inclusion need to be taken, he said while presenting the keynote paper at the discussion on how to track and monitor the progress in financial inclusion. 

The webinar was the third of a series titled "Bangladesh Financial Inclusion Forum 1.0," organised by Aspire to Innovate (a2i) in association with MicroSave Consulting (MSC) and The Business Standard.

Anik said one of the successful steps taken by the government was mobile financial services (MFS). The number of MFS accounts increased from 41.9 million in January 2017 to 96.48 million till April 2021. In the meantime, the number of banking agents also increased from 5.5 million to 11 million. 

He recommended collecting data properly, and district-wise and group-wise monitoring for making the efforts for financial inclusion effective.

Anik also said a framework as well as a public and private sector collaboration was necessary in this regard. Besides, government intervention is needed for the low-income segment of the population.

Emphasising the importance of gender-segregated data, World Bank Economist Saniya Ansar said the central bank could identify and highlight the areas of need and engage public and private sectors in this endeavour. 

She called for collecting geospatial data, saying that, "Geospatial mapping of access points and use of financial services can identify priority areas for expanding the access network. The authority can also set up a registration system for financial access points for further monitoring."

Saniya proposed creating a supervisory tool to monitor account transaction, regulatory data and consumer protection.  

She said the transaction data would mostly come from the private sector, helping identify gaps and trends and formulate data-driven strategy.  

At the event, Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun said gender-disaggregated data was crucial for financial inclusion but data collection was challenging too. 

"We still do not have any official or national level data. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has the capacity but they conduct onetime surveys. Data needs to be collected regularly and on a large scale." 

Besides, one organisation cannot collect vast amounts of data; a multi-sectoral approach is needed and there must be consistency, Fahmida said. 

"The financial inclusion strategy has to be more effective and its implementation smooth, efficient and transparent. The authority has to scale up monitoring and interlink policies with it," she added. 

Md Ruhul Amin, general manager at Financial Inclusion Department of the Bangladesh Bank, said, "We are conducting activities for financial inclusion and monitoring the latest developments. We call the stakeholders, take data from them and seek explanations if their work is not at the expected level." 

He further said the central bank had taken a vigorous step to bring all students under the umbrella of financial inclusion and was providing funds to them to buy computers and related equipment. 

The BB has also created an opportunity for the poor to open bank accounts with only Tk10. They can take loans against these accounts and can use them for getting aid under the social safety net. 

On financial inclusion to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), BBS SDG Cell Focal Point Md Alamgir Hossen said financial inclusion would ensure inclusive development of the country. The vulnerable people and the group that frequently falls victim to natural disasters will benefit from it. Revenue earning will also get a boost as more people will be able to contribute. 
"Financial inclusion will also bring people under insurance coverage and they will be able to get aid directly from the social safety net," Alamgir said, adding that, "It will also be helpful for the SMEs, specially for women entrepreneurs." 

Dr Mohammad A Razzaque, research director of Policy Research Institute, said the initial step of financial inclusion was to bring the population outside the coverage of formal banking under the financial services. 

"But generating the right data is a challenge. The country made good progress, but still it cannot bring the macro-economy under financial inclusion due to a lack of capacity." 
"Financial inclusion should not be linked with hardcore policy as it becomes difficult for the people to discuss and debate," he added. 

Afsana Islam, private sector development advisor of Foreign Commonwealth and Development, said the BB had the scope to generate gender-disaggregated data as it had information of all accounts in the country. 

"A huge amount of data cannot be used without sorting it out properly. A financial inclusion policy is needed to monitor and track the data. We have to collect data, recheck and have to plan for subsequent steps," she added. 

Program Manager of a2i Md Tohurul Hasan also spoke at the webinar while Anil Kumar Gupta, partner of MSC, moderated it.