Asia Regional Live

Catalyzing Women’s Financial Inclusion in Bangladesh: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Digital Innovation

Fiw Topics

  • Digital Financial Services
  • Understanding Impact
  • Women's Financial Inclusion

Fiw Year

  • 2024

Transcripts:

English
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Summary + Key Insights

The discussion focused on enhancing women’s financial inclusion in Bangladesh through multi-stakeholder collaboration, emphasizing digital solutions and regulatory support. 

  • 🤝 Collaboration is key: Engaging various stakeholders, including government, academia, and financial service providers, can drive effective solutions for women’s financial inclusion. 
  • 📉 Persistent gender gaps: Despite improvements, significant disparities in access to financial services remain, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. 
  • 📱 Digital innovation: Developing gender-sensitive digital financial products can enhance women’s engagement and usage of financial services, fostering economic empowerment. 
  • ⚠️ Cybersecurity awareness: Women’s vulnerability to digital scams necessitates robust security measures and education to build trust in financial systems. 
  • 📚 Financial literacy programs: Initiatives by Bangladesh Bank to boost women’s knowledge of financial services are crucial for increasing participation and use. 
  • 🔗 Microfinance potential: Digitizing microfinance can streamline access to funds for women, particularly those at the bottom of the pyramid, promoting economic growth. 
  • 🌍 Social protection improvements: While digitization of government payments is underway, enhancing awareness and accountability remains essential for maximizing benefits for women beneficiaries. 

This session summary was AI-generated using NoteGPT.

Bangladesh stands as one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile money markets, presenting unique opportunities and challenges for women’s financial inclusion. This panel session will delve into the multifaceted approaches necessary to catalyze financial inclusion for women, focusing on the collaborative efforts required across sectors. Leora Klapper from the World Bank will share insights from the Global Findex Database, while Dr. Zaki Wahhaj will share his research which explores the impact of mobile money on female labor force participation in Bangladesh. Shahana Ferdousi will discuss the role of the Women’s Financial Inclusion Data (WFID) Dashboard in providing critical data to drive policy and industry decisions in Bangladesh. Finally, bKash leadership will offer an industry perspective, sharing innovative strategies for expanding digital financial services to women consumers. Moderated by Dr. Imran Matin, this session will encourage dialogue on practical, scalable solutions, drawing on the expertise and experiences of each speaker. Attendees will gain valuable insights into how different sectors can collaborate effectively to enhance financial inclusion for women in Bangladesh, with lessons applicable to similar contexts worldwide.

Session Speakers

Leora Klapper

Lead Economist, Development Economics, The World Bank Group

Leora Klapper is a Lead Economist in the Finance and Private Sector Research Team of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Her publications focus on corporate and household finance, fintech, banking, and entrepreneurship. Her current research studies the impact of digital financial services, especially for women. She is a founder of the Global Findex database and Director of the 2022 World Development Report. Previously, she worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Salomon Smith Barney. She holds a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from New York University Stern School of Business.

Shahana Ferdous

Monitoring & Evaluation, Bangladesh Bank

Shahana Ferdousi leads the Monitoring & Evaluation team of the NFIS Administrative Unit (NAU) of Bangladesh Bank, which is responsible for the implementation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) of Bangladesh. She works tirelessly to bring the unserved and underserved segments of the population under formal financial services. A graduate of Zoology from Jahangirnagar University, she has good knowledge of the financial sector policy framework. Prior to joining NAU, she served in the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) for 12 years with great honour. She is very passionate about contributing to sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Imran Matin

Executive Director, BIGD, BRAC University

Zaki Wahhaj

Professor of Development Economics, King’s College London

Zaki Wahhaj is a Professor of Development Economics at King’s College London. He obtained his BSc in Economics with Mathematics from Yale University, and a PhD in Economics from MIT. Following his PhD, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Research in Economic Development (CRED) at the University of Namur, Belgium, and three years as lecturer in development economics at the Department of International Development (ODID), University of Oxford. He was previously Professor of Economics at the University of Kent, where he co-founded the Development Economics Research Centre at Kent. He joined King’s College London in 2024. Zaki’s main fields of research are in economic development and applied theory. His current research deals, broadly, with the themes of social norms and household decision-making in developing countries, including work on marriage markets in developing countries; household decision-making in developing countries; access to finance for marginalised groups; and evolution of social norms and informal institutions.

Moinuddin Mohammed Rahgir

Chief Financial Officer, bKash

Moinuddin joined the management team of bKash in October 2012 and has been instrumental in shaping the Finance Internal Control & Procurement team in bKash. He brings along an experience of more than 17 years in British American Tobacco where he worked in various roles in Finance ranging from Corporate Finance to Commercial & Strategic Planning. His career also includes completion of an international assignment within the British American Group.
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