Financial service access up merely 2pc in last five years
Access to any financial services in Bangladesh has increased by a mere 2 percent in last five years, a research report of the Institute of Microfinance (InM), an independent think tank said.
The report which was revealed at the recently concluded two-day National Convention on Inclusive Finance in Bangladesh at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC), said, access to financial service in 2015 is 79 per cent compared to 77 per cent in 2010.
The report titled Access
to financial services in Bangladesh-A Demand Side Study said that Barisal is the leading division with 89.74 per cent financial access, followed by Khulna-85.44 per cent, Rangpur-84.19 per cent and Rajshahi-83.63 per cent.
Sylhet has the least amount of access to financial services with 73.87 per cent. Dhaka and Chittagong respectively has 74.02 per cent and 75.62 per cent.
The InM study found that access to formal financial market which mainly consisted of bank services such as savings and credit and insurance has increased by 8 pre cent in the last five years. From 32.8 per cent in 2010, it has become 40.49 per cent.
The report said as formal financial market now includes households that have mobile banking account in a bank, the access, especially in rural area has made a significant growth.
The study also found that access to microfinance market which mainly included savings and credit has increased by 3.7 per cent in the last five years. In 2010, the access was 43.23 per cent and now the access is 46.91 per cent.
In previous survey of 2010, it was found that significantly higher percentages of rural households than urban ones could have accessibility to microfinance services. However, according to the recent survey, outreach of microfinance in urban areas has expanded.
More than 45 per cent of the urban households can now access microfinance services in comparison with 30.88 per cent in 2010.
MA Baqui Khaili, executive director of InM and the team leader of the study, said that financial sector of Bangladesh have seen both existing and new ideas in the past few years with the introduction of and use of ATM/debit card, credit card, ten taka account and mobile banking.
Out of all these services, mobile banking account or using others mobile account to transfer money has experienced rise in popularity, he said. To expand more financial inclusion, it is essential to innovate and improvise financial products to make broaden the outreach of financial service offered by institutions, he observed.
