The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday revealed that development finance (DF) sector is serving 2.6 million borrowers with an outstanding portfolio of Rs 606 billion. According to SBP''s special report on "Access to Finance in Pakistan" despite the fact women constitutes 13.3 million of Pakistan''s labour force which represents their significance in the overall economic growth of the country, access to financial services by women is lower in Pakistan.
"The SBP has been supporting development of an inclusive financial system in the country to ensure provision of financial services to all sectors of the economy and as part of these efforts the momentum is building gradually for increasing women''s share in financial access," it added.
Nearly 90 percent of these women work in agriculture, elementary occupations and crafts sector. This presents an opportunity to financial sector to increase its outreach amongst the economically active female population. Cognisant of the potential of these markets, the SBP assigns high priority to the sectors such as agricultural credit, microfinance, SME finance, and housing finance.
As on December 31, 2013, DF sector is serving 2.6 million borrowers with an outstanding portfolio of Rs 606 billion. However, male borrowers dominate with a significant share of 87 percent in the total borrower base. Overall, highest number of borrowers 1.4 million or 54 percent are concentrated in agriculture sector followed by microfinance with 0.97 million or 38 percent borrowers, whereas share of SMEs in total borrowers is 5 percent.
Sectoral distribution shows that maximum number of female borrowers is in microfinance banking sector which make up 78 percent of the overall female borrower base within the DF sector. The outstanding portfolio of DF sector stands at Rs 606 billion with significant shares in SMEs Rs 270 billion and agriculture Rs 255 billion. Gender classification of the portfolio reveals that only 5 percent or Rs 28 billion of the overall credit of DF sector is directed towards female borrowers.
Among sectors, highest credit to women is directed in agriculture, which stood at 36 percent and SME sector 26 percent whereas microfinance and housing finance sector make 19 percent each. On the saving side, MFBs currently hold 2.7 million individual deposit accounts with a share of 32 percent female accounts. Major share in total value of deposits of Rs 30 billion is held by males with 78 percent of Rs 23 billion while women make up 22 percent.