- Financial inclusion rises in 6 years as 81% of men and 50% of women gain banking access in Pakistan
Interview with Mr. Hamad Rasool Bhullar — an analyst
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself, please:
Hamad Rasool Bhullar: I have been working for both the private and public sectors over the last about 33 years in multiple roles with almost 28 years in professional trainings. With respect to my work with the financial sector, I have been involved in research and training for almost 27 years so far, and conducted over 350 trainings on different aspects of Finance, Business Ethics, Audit and Corporate Governance from basic concepts to professional applications in Projects Finance, Shariah Compliant risk management, investment management and Financial Analysis etc. In addition to the freelance consultancy and Financial Advisory in these fields.
I remained a non-executive member on the Board of an Investment Bank for almost 4 years. My qualifications and experience, have mainly been in Accountancy, Corporate Law, IT, Economics, Corporate Finance and Islamic Finance, Takaful, Business Turnarounds, Projects Finance, Audit & ethics with Trainings and business advisory in multiple areas of Corporate Sector as well as Public Sector within and outside Pakistan.
I have a privilege to have issued the first Sukuk in Pakistan’s Investment Canvas with some other very first initiatives in the financial sector in Pakistan.
PAGE: A substantial number of adult Pakistanis have been financially included over a decade in particular. Your perspective, please:
Hamad Rasool Bhullar: As a matter of fact, the new generation is much more hi-tech as compared to our generation. The young adults of today have much better ability to handle the new technology, accordingly they are financially included in many ways, because they have their footprints on financial services in much higher ratio. As per the report by State Bank of Pakistan strategy Report on Financial Inclusion only the last 6 years have shown quite a good amount of improvement.
Over 81% on adult males are now banked while the ratio in females is almost 50%, the Gap between the genders has got narrowed down to 33% as compared to 47% 6 years ago. National Financial Literacy Programme for Youth (NFLP-Y) has been instrumental in imparting financial management skills among the masses in Pakistan. As collectively 3.2 million beneficiaries got trained, among them 58 per cent were women. Here we must appreciate the SBP teams in promoting the access and usage of quality financial services by means of digital financial inclusion. Asaan Mobile Account (AMA) Scheme, Digital On-boarding Framework, RAAST, Roshan Digital Account (RDA), Licencing framework for Digital Banks have remained the vital in this improvement with that the use of IT tools and mobile Apps, which made available by the digital financial services easier.
PAGE: Is Pakistan’s financial services ecosystem still underdeveloped?
Hamad Rasool Bhullar: Although the number of persons using financial services has increased but the system has not yet increased its quality and dimensions, as a bigger majority of the people are using the very basic types of financial services. One of the factors in this case is a frequent threat and variety of threats to the users of theses financial services. A variety of techniques and frauds are being undertaken by the so called learned “Financially included and learned persons”.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is quite confident in enhancing financial inclusion target to reach 75% by 2028, from the 65% at present. It is hoped that this will contribute in raising the standard of living and quality of life in Pakistan.
Innovations and technology trends in Agriculture, SME, Housing, Microfinance and Sustainable finance will help on development of an ecosystem which will become more interactive and reliable for achieving the desired improvements in quality index of the human life.
PAGE: How would you comment on financial inclusion for women entrepreneurs?
Hamad Rasool Bhullar: It is very important for the development of the society as a whole, as women make up over 50 per cent of the total population of Pakistan. Their participation is vital to the development of the society on the one hand. While their contribution is mostly not recognised due to the fact that they are not considered as the primary bread winners of the family system in our society but they are bread makers in our families, which is not counted in financial terms. On the other hand, their contribution not being counted so not included as independent in financial decision making in a family, which is the primary issue in this society. Once their financial gains are taken into their account, they will not be counted as included in financial contributory. Now, what we need to do is to take the women as financial earners, and financially independent, then only their financial inclusion will become as counted, which is possible when they are trained as entrepreneurs running their own business or financial system. This action requires, their training, their transformation in thought process and then the financial inclusion making them confident entrepreneurs.
PAGE: How has the technology helped financial inclusion in Pakistan?
Hamad Rasool Bhullar: Technology is primarily the basic tool in development of an economy. Practically technology has a great potential and has already done a lot for the humans. Pakistan is no exception, Pakistan’s population can utilize the technology, especially the IT is almost every walk of life. It is in the human nature, that we strive for better every next time. As it is said that “Even the best is not good enough” we always have some cushion for improvement, while we are lagging much behind many nations of the world. Technology has helped Pakistan’s population in achieving a better pace for development in financial inclusion and making life much easier. It is now adding values to business, as they are no more requiring any physical spaces for operations, which is a great opportunity for the future business establishments, new professions have emerged.