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“Financial inclusion in a country occurs after empowering women,” Habib Bank Limited (HBL) Director Muhammad Aurangzeb said, while addressing the session titled “Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment” at the KLF on Sunday.
“It refers to the women who have bank accounts in the country as during the mid-2000s nearly 4% of our bank accounts belonged to women which jumped to 17% in 2019,” he added.
The esteemed panel of speakers included State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Reza Baqir, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, former IBA dean and Adviser to Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain and Pak Brunei Investment Company Managing Director Ayesha Aziz.
Recalling her experience, Ayesha Aziz, who was the only female panelist, said, "I found it really hard when I was working in an organisation and women did not have the basic facilities to nurse their children or had separate washrooms.”
The Pak Brunei executive noted that the ecosystem designed by men was for the male hence women faced several issues when it came to furthering their careers.
“There are not enough empowered women to inspire others,” Ayesha said.
The SBP governor argued that it was not a global issue and that the planetary approach was now changing.
"If we look at the International Monetary Fund, the money lender replaced its female CEO with another competent female CEO, so this trend is changing," he said.
When asked how the financial institutes aimed to take more women in their financial equality fold, the HBL director said that the federal government's target was to have 20 million unique female accounts in banks by 2023.
Dr Ishrat observed that the target could be achieved organically if the employers offered higher-earning opportunities to the women.
"The best investment a country can make is to invest in their female labour force. Countries like Vietnam, which increased their labour force to 50% took their exports to $300 billion," he said.
While responding to a question about the provision of online bank accounts to women living in the rural areas, the former IBA dean said, "There are 170 million cell phones in Pakistan. Women have never had more ease of opening accounts and attaining financial inclusion than before.”
He observed that keeping women uneducated was one of the most unproductive investments a country could make.
“The best return of investment is on female education rather than on roads and dams,” he reiterated.
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