DHAKA: Bangladesh Bank (BB) and IFC-World Bank (WB) Group on Tuesday (March 22) have signed a cooperation agreement at a ‘Cooperation Agreement Signing and Program Launching Ceremony’ to promote financial inclusion of Bangladeshi women through increased adoption of mobile financial services (MFS).

Bangladesh Bank deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury inaugurated the event as chief guest while IFCs Country Manager for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal Wendy Jo Werner chaired the ceremony.

Officials from Bangladesh Bank’s Payment Systems Department, IFC-World Bank Group and representatives from 12 leading MFS providers were present as well, said a press release.

BB executive director Subhankar Saha opened the ceremony with welcoming remarks, and Ananya Wahid Kader, the Project Leader from the World Bank Group, presented an overview of the interventions.

The project will conduct a comprehensive study to provide a set of data and insights that MFS providers will optimize to pursue the women segment.

In addition, MFS providers will obtain women agent acquisition toolkit and a women focused MFS product design.

These will be used to build dedicated products and a delivery channel of women agents so that they can accelerate female MFS use.
 
SK Sur Chowdhury said, “Empowering women is central to our developmental goals. Bangladesh Bank has been working relentlessly in financial inclusion programs, especially for women. It is our aim to bring the unbanked into the financial system to ensure sustainable development”.

Wendy Jo Werner stated, “By signing the Cooperation Agreement with Bangladesh Bank, we hope to bring IFC and the World Bank Group’s global expertise to help the financial inclusion agenda and aid Bangladesh Bank’s objectives to ultimately empower Bangladeshi women and promote gender equality”.

BDST: 1551 HRS, MAR 22, 2016
RR/SMS