Over 90 percent Pakistanis have no access to banking services: ADB

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said that more than 90 percent people in Pakistan have still no access to banking services. The ADB's latest report 'Development Effectiveness Review 2017' stated that in some of the region's poorest countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan among them, more than 90 percent of people still have no access to banking services. Financial technology and related innovations offer new pathways for improving financial inclusion.
The report stated that inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient, declined during 2010-14 in several ADB developing member countries (DMCs). This coefficient now exceeds the 0.4 threshold for high income inequality in 10 DMCs. However, income inequality rose in a few countries with large populations, including India, Indonesia and Pakistan. Inequality has many dimensions and the gap between the rich and the poor in the region remains substantial. The report further stated that measures to reduce sexual harassment risks for women passengers will be embedded in a project ADB committed to in 2017 to support the first bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor in the northern Pakistan city of Peshawar.
The BRT facilities will include proper lighting and closed-circuit television cameras. Women will have segregated seating areas. Staff will be trained to deal with harassment incidents. The design responds to gender analysis findings during project preparation that 90 percent of women felt unsafe using Peshawar's existing bus services and preferred instead to walk an average of 2km per day or, for those who could afford it, pay more for safer transport. The project will ensure that 10 percent of the employees of the BRT's operations and two other entities involved are women. Women will also be guaranteed earmarked commercial space at BRT stations and stops for trading and businesses.
The gender action plan includes a series of multimedia campaigns against sexual harassment aimed at reaching a mass audience of at least 480,000 BRT riders a day, maintained the report.