Poor to get low-cost insurance facility

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FE Report
Bangladesh government, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation (PKSF) Thursday inked a tripartite agreement for $ 2.0 million to provide low-cost insurance facility to the poor, particularly women.
Joint Secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) Safiuddin Ahmed, Country Director of ADB's Bangladesh Resident Mission Paul J Heytens and Deputy Managing Director of PKSF Parveen Mahmud signed the deal for the respective parties at the ERD office in the city.
The project will be financed by the Japanese government through a $ 2.0 million grant of the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction. ADB will administer the fund and also provide technical support for project implementation.
The grant will be given to the ministry of finance, the executing agency, which in turn will oversee implementation of the project by PKSF, a micro finance apex organisation.
"Under the project titled 'Developing Inclusive Insurance Sector' nearly 50,000 poor and vulnerable people of 20,000 rural households will be benefited," said Heytens while addressing the signing ceremony.
He said, "The project will be financed by Japan and it will help to strengthen financial coping skills of these families by helping to reduce by 30 per cent unexpected expenses arising from illness, fire, theft and loss or damage to property for natural disasters."
Meanwhile, ADB in statement said, the project will go beyond providing basic insurance service and risk protection to the vulnerable as well as will corporate an extensive educational and awareness campaign about the concept of insurance and inform them of the choices about insurance schemes.
The ADB also said, under this project, capacity building training will be provided to at least 20 microfinance institutions where the professionals will be able to develop institutional expertise in insurance underwriting, screening, financial management, product development and marketing.