The Digital Finance Consultative Group (DFCG) consultation workshop on ‘National Financial Inclusion Strategy for Bangladesh: A Roadmap towards Digital Financial Inclusion’ was held on Thursday, 12 April 2018 in Dhaka. UN Capital Development Fund and Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh (BFP-B) jointly organized the workshop. Around 100 representatives from the government, private sector, Fintech providers, INGOs, and financial institutions discussed the strategic role of digital financial services in achieving greater financial inclusion in Bangladesh.

The meeting was graced by Mr. Arijit Chowdhury, Additional Secretary, Financial Institutions Division, Ministry of Finance, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh as the Chief Guest and Mr. Manoj Kumar Biswas, General Manager, Sustainable Finance Department, Bangladesh Bank as the Special Guest. Dr. Mustafa K. Mujeri, Team Leader, National Financial Inclusion Strategy for Bangladesh (NFIS-B) presented the draft NFIS for Bangladesh in the workshop.

The objective of the consultative workshop was to share the draft NFIS-B with the digital finance stakeholders for their feedback and strategic inputs. Dr. Mostafa K. Mujeri presented the core findings of the research and explained relevant aspects of digital financial inclusion incorporated in the draft NFIS-B.

WHAT THE NFIS STRATEGY CONTAINS?

The government of Bangladesh has undertaken drafting National Financial Inclusion Strategy for Bangladesh (NFIS-B) with the support of DFID through Business Finance for the Poor- Bangladesh (BFP-B) Programme. The National Financial Inclusion Strategy for Bangladesh would be a national roadmap to promote access to financial services for the excluded and unbanked population. NFIS-B would also largely contribute to achieve the long term national goals like ‘Vision 2021’ and a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.