Study: Mobile money drives financial inclusion

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Financial inclusion expanded 8 percentage points year-on-year in 2015, driven by growth in mobile money, according to a recent study.

About 43 percent of Bangladeshis are financially included, says the study conducted by Washington-based research company InterMedia with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation based on statistics of 2015.

Of the figure, 24 percent of citizens are covered by non-bank financial inclusion and 19 percent have full-service bank accounts. Of them, 9 percent have mobile money accounts.

There were 3.9 crore registered mobile financial service accounts in Bangladesh until October this year, with only 1.38 crore active, according to the central bank.

Customers transferred Tk 20,692.43 crore in 12.85 crore transactions in October this year, according to central bank statistics.

However, account access and usage remain a problem – while the number of active mobile money account users doubled in the past year, according to the report, known as the Financial Inclusion Insights. Of active registered users, 13 percent have used at least one advanced mobile money function in a month, the study said.

Source: The Daily Star (link opens in a new window)

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financial inclusion