KARACHI:
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad has reaffirmed the central bank’s dedication to increasing financial inclusion through robust collaboration with both global and domestic stakeholders.
He made these remarks in a meeting on Monday with Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Chief Executive Officer Dr Alfred Hannig, who was on a visit to Pakistan.
Ahmad highlighted SBP’s recently launched third edition of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2024-28. He emphasised that the central bank would push ahead with efforts to enhance financial inclusion through digitalisation and reduce gender gap in finance.
SBP is a founding member of AFI since 2008, which is a policy leadership alliance of central banks and financial regulatory institutions from 84 countries with the common objective of advancing financial inclusion at country, regional and international levels.
SBP currently serves on the AFI board and is vice-chair of the AFI Gender Inclusive Finance Committee and the South Asia Regional Financial Inclusion Initiative.
The SBP governor praised AFI’s support and longstanding partnership with Pakistan’s central bank, which facilitated peer learning exchanges and capacity building opportunities for SBP officers in developing and implementing evidence-based financial inclusion policies.
In his remarks, Alfred Hannig extended AFI’s appreciation for SBP’s leadership role in promoting financial inclusion in Pakistan and discussed areas of mutual collaboration to continue efforts for breaking barriers.
He highlighted the crucial need to enhance regulators’ capacity in the South Asia region to achieve impactful financial inclusion policy objectives and stressed that implementation should be balanced with effective cyber security resilience and consumer protection.
The meeting explored opportunities to further strengthen institutional collaboration in areas of digital payments, financial literacy, sustainable finance and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) financing. Both parties resolved to continue efforts for improving the financial health and well-being of masses, especially the unbanked and under-banked population segments.
SBP also organised a discussion between Hannig and financial inclusion stakeholders including the presidents and CEOs of banks, representatives of Pakistan Banks’ Association, Pakistan Microfinance Network, Fintech Association & Network and SBP’s senior management.
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