Disparity between men and women in terms of access to basic facilities and resources is a grim reality. Women have less access than men to a range of productive resources, including education, healthcare, land, decent work, information and financial resources that limits their ability to participate in the economy and contribute to better living standards for their families.
Especially, excluding or limiting women from banking and financial services has reduced farm and enterprise outputs undermining efforts to reduce poverty. Women in this country are overwhelmingly not linked to the basic banking and financial
services.
Due to the less access to the productive resources and information, women also lack financial literacy and awareness of the use and availability of banking and financial products.
Financial Literacy is basically a combination of awareness, knowledge, skill, attitude and behaviour necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial wellbeing.
It is recognised that the understanding of finance and its impact is essential for the economic and social security and empowerment of women. Financial awareness, financial knowledge and skills empower women to take control of their future and enable them to make valuable contributions to the society.
Conversely, lack of financial awareness and knowledge restrict women to get access to financial resources and limit their contribution to the economy. In Bangladesh, women are facing major barriers in terms of social structures, limited knowledge, limited ownership of land and properties, and access to banking and financial services in comparison to their male counterparts. A very few of them are having bank accounts, or are using loans and other banking products.
It is well accepted that financial literacy is an essential life-skill that every human being requires. Deregulation of the financial services industry has increased the number and range of financial products, providing increased choices. To make informed choices, today's consumers require greater levels of financial capability than those of three decades ago.
Surprisingly, while the need for financial literacy may be largely acknowledged, the importance of gender divide remains a subject for debate. In different studies women are shown to be relatively less financially literate and aware than men and such gaps represent fundamental problems for social equity and may affect relative economic power within the household.
Thus, women's financial awareness should receive special attention of the policy makers for protecting economic empowerment on an equal basis.
Involvement in economic activities and access to banking services is integrally connected. Women's involvement in economic activities remained low as compared to that of the men in almost all developing countries. For mainstreaming women in economic activities, government and central banks in low-income countries have been working to facilitate women entrepreneurs.
It can not be denied that positive changes have taken place. However, lots of challenges are still required. Women have been facing serious difficulty in obtaining loans from commercial banks because of lack of land ownership. Women's access to institutional loans is further restricted by their lack of education, confinement to household activities, lack of familiarity with loan providers and restrictions on their mobility.
It is well-known that people generally have idea about the activities of banks whether they have access or not. All classes of women generally have some idea about banks and their
services.
However, product specific familiarity varies widely. Though some of the savings and loan products are used by the entrepreneurs and working women, product familiarities among low-income women are very rare. Information and awareness about technology based banking services like internet banking and mobile banking are much low.
Analyses of the data on the supply-side also clearly indicate the inadequate access to finance and poor awareness about banking services among women. The cases of women loan applicants are significantly low as compared to the men.
Collateral and some other documentary requirements are also not supportive to women clients. In some recent studies, lack of information, inadequate financial literacy and adverse family and social environment came up as most critical factors for inadequate access of banking products among women of the country.
In the recent times women have emphatically proved their talent in various fields. Our society, therefore, needs to give every possible opportunity to them and only then women will be able to make their full contribution to our progress.
Since financing is an important means to pursue growth opportunities, addressing the requirements of women entrepreneurs' and other women-specific needs in accessing finance must be part of the country's development agenda.
Today, more women in Bangladesh launch their own businesses; but they are unable to access the credit facilities needed for further expansion. Considering the fact of inadequate financial literacy and inadequate access of Bangladeshi women to the banking services, policy makers are to come up with more proactive roles.
It is time that the government and other stakeholders should play more proactive role to promote financial literacy and awareness among low-income women of the country.
Till date, low-income women are not adequately being targeted by banks. Practically, low-income women do not commonly consider banks as their institutions to save with or borrow from.
There is no doubt that due to the initiatives of the Bangladesh Bank, women entrepreneurs are getting some notable benefits from the banks. Now, every bank has to have a separate 'Women Entrepreneur's Dedicated Desk'. However, at the operational level, there are many scopes for improvement.
Banks have to offer more opportunities for women by targeting them with the right products and market at the right time. Low-income women should get due priority in designing banking products.
The writer is professor and director (Training), Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM). ahsan@bibm.org.bd