Financial inclusion is defined as access to formal financial services by individuals & firms to use a range of quality payments, savings, credit and insurance services which meet their needs with dignity and fairness.
Goal
To improve inclusive economic growth and to improve income and livelihoods opportunities for poor and marginalized groups in Pakistan
Objective
The Financial Inclusion Programme (FIP), implemented by SBP with support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), aims to transform the financial market with a clear objective to provide equitable and efficient market-based financial services to the otherwise excluded poor and marginalized population including women and young people.
The Financial Inclusion Programme (FIP), implemented by SBP with support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), aims to transform the financial market with a clear objective to provide equitable and efficient market-based financial services to the otherwise excluded poor and marginalized population including women and young people.
FIP focuses on enhancing access of financial services for lower segment of population. FIP contributed in financial sector development through enhancing governance structure, product development, creating better systems & controls, and developing IT infrastructure, etc. FIP has also been instrumental in meeting liquidity & credit requirements of Micro & Housing sectors, fostering innovations in rural & agriculture finance, digitizing streams of Government to Peron payments, etc, while gender finance & Islamic finance are the cross cutting themes. The key elements for success of the programme lies in its structured governance framework and creating strategic partnership among the private & public sector institutions.
| Financial Inclusion Program Components | Download |
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| Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS) for Small and Rural Enterprises Guidelines | 
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| Microcredit Guarantee Facility (MCGF) Guidelines |
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| Financial Innovation Challenge Fund | |
| FICF Round 1 Guidelines - Financially Inclusive Government to Person (G2P) Payments |
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| FICF Round 2 Guidelines - Promoting Innovative Rural and Agricultural Finance in Pakistan |
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| FICF Round 3 Guidelines - Promoting Excellence in Islamic Finance |
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| ISF (Defunct) |
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In view of the persistence of financial exclusion in the face of long-standing efforts and increasing global trends, SBP-GOP has developed a broader National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) for Pakistan.
Pakistan has a population that is in excess of 180 million people. However, penetration in the financial sector is extremely low, with only 2.4% of the population having access to credit from formal financial sources. Out of the total adult population of Pakistan, the financially excluded population make up 53%. One of the major reasons for why large portion of population is unbanked is the lack of awareness of financial products and their usage. A large portion of population also lacks basic money and financial management skill. The concepts of budgeting, investing savings etc are novel for them.
State Bank of Pakistan launched the Pakistans first ever Nationwide Financial Literacy Program (NFLP) on 20th January 2012 to promote financial inclusion through spreading financial education for inclusive economic growth and stability across the country. The Program intends to target middle income households and youth through building partnerships with education institutions in a phased manner. The program envisions educating around 0.5 million low income households in first phase.
More Details :
s implementing “National Financial Literacy Program for Youth” (NFLP-Y) to impart essential financial education to Pakistani youth and school going children for strengthening of their money management skills and enhance their understanding of financial matters. The program is targeting three age groups (School going Children: age 9-12 years; Adolescent: age 13-17 years; Youth: age 18-29 years) across 45 selected districts of Pakistan including GB & AJK. NIBAF (NFLP-Y) aims at reaching out to 1.6 million children, adolescents and youth through classroom trainings including 0.6 million on digital learning platform during five years i.e. 2018 - 2023.
Key objectives of the program are:
More Details :
| Item | Data Archive | Download |
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| National Financial Education Roadmap | Jan 28, 2022 |
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To enhance financial inclusion in the country SBP has entered into strategic partnerships not only within the country but it has also joined hands with the international financial institutions and development agencies to enhance knowledge, acquire technical expertise, instill regulatory and practitioner capacities besides funding support for market development and fostering innovations.
SBP regularly conducts surveys/research to gauge state of financial inclusion, the performance of its initiatives, innovations, industry trends, and to determine demand/supply side evolutions/trends. The findings from these surveys & researches not only provide baseline data for the development of national financial inclusion strategies but also support policy formulation.
The 1st Access to Finance study was conducted in Pakistan in 2008 by FinMark Trust in support with SBP, which revealed that 12% of Pakistans adult population had access to formal financial services. The study, funded by DFID, SDC (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) and PMN yielded a rich data base on many aspects of access to financial services and was used to provide useful inputs for analysis, planning and successfully implementing various financial inclusion initiatives. Since then SBP has made several landmark initiatives to advance financial inclusion and catalyze on innovations to widen the reach of financial services in Pakistan including a dedicated Financial Inclusion Program. Financial Inclusion Program (FIP) has been developed with the aim to improve access to financial services in Pakistan by transforming the microfinance sector, and by introducing several industry level initiatives to promote financial inclusion.
In this backdrop, the 2nd A2F survey was envisioned to gauge the performance of our financial inclusion initiatives since 2008, and provide baseline data for the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. Furthermore, the survey was also designed to determine demand side progress that can supplement upcoming supply side developments. Hence it provides a deeper understanding of the factors determining demand for financial services (information about financial services, understanding of these services; financial literacy, opinions, trust, perceptions, etc.) The full survey was conducted in all four provinces based on nationally representative sample of 10,626 individuals.
