Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman, second from right, speaks at the 2012 AFI Global Policy Forum at Cape Town in South Africa on Thursday.

The global economic crisis has brought into attention the need for inclusive growth-focused policies, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman said.

He cited Bangladesh's real GDP, which has been growing at over 6 percent plus amid the global slowdown, as an example.

“The inclusive growth-focused monetary and credit policies have helped the economy maintain a firm foothold on a stable progress path,” Rahman said at the 2012 AFI Global Policy Forum at Cape Town on September 27.

Poverty alleviation, too, has been gaining pace, with a sharp uptrend in rural wages.

“Central banks can play a catalytic role in this reorientation of goals of financial institutions and markets towards the socially responsible inclusive lending practices, by ensuring adequate credit flows to the underserved or financially-excluded economic sectors and population segments.”

Following the global financial crisis the BB launched a countrywide financial inclusion campaign to motivate and guide banks to reach out cost effectively to the underserved rural and urban poor.

Given the fast growing popularity of mobile telephony, mobile financial services (MFS) emerged as a solution, and in 2011 BB issued a guideline on it.

So far 23 banks have been given the licence for MFS, and 14 banks have already started their operations, informed Rahman.

Over the past two years, around 1.3 crore no-frills accounts have been opened in the names of hitherto unbanked people with initial deposits as low as Tk 10, revealed the BB governor.

Bangladesh's daily transaction via mobile banking stands at Tk 33 crore on average, Rahman thinks, provide ample evidence of the ever deepening role of financial inclusion in GDP growth.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/30-Sep-12