Mansoor H Siddiqui, Director State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Wednesday said that SBP attaches immense importance to the economic development of women in order to achieve its goals of financial literacy and inclusion.
Addressing women entrepreneurship awareness seminar held at Government College Women University here he said that SBP has taken some measures in the past for this purpose and launching of National Financial Inclusion strategy aims at increasing the proportion of women with formal bank account in order to meet global targets. Specifically it endeavours to achieve goal of 25 percent adult women with formal account by 2020 as compared to 2.9 percent in 2014 he added.
Siddiqui further informed that under National Financial Literacy programme efforts would made for disseminating awareness about basic financial topics such as saving, budgeting, investing and accessing financial products and services and has set a target of getting 50 percent females as trainees.
Conducting of awareness programmes and seminars aimed at women's financial literacy which includes 3 sessions on refinance schemes for members of women chambers of commerce and industry in Peshawar, Multan and Lahore in current financial year conducted through respective SBP-BSC field officer. More than 700 participants have attended these women-oriented programmes in past two years he added.
He said Micro-finance Ordinance of 2001 aimed to provide organisational, financial and infrastructural support for the empowerment of women among others adding that the Prime Ministers Youth Business Loan also focuses on women entrepreneurship by fixing a quota of 50 percent for them. Siddiqui further stated that women constitute approximately half the population of Pakistan and it is crucial for the country's development to focus on the financial and economic emancipation of this segment of the society. It has been proven through research that an increase in female labour force participation can lead to broader economic development in the developing countries he said.
The experience of the developed nations of the world where the share of women-owned enterprises is continuously increasing strengthens the view that future of small scale industries depends very much on the entry of women into industry he said. Currently in Pakistan he said the literacy rate for females is 49 percent as compared to 70 percent for males indicating a gap of 21 percent that needs to be bridged. Similarly the female labour force participation is also low 15.8 percent as compared to 48.1 percent for men and needs to be addressed in order to drive economic growth. Vice Chancellor Government College Women University Dr Farhat Saleemi and others also spoke on the occasion.
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