Agent banking expanding fast among rural women

The agent banking is expanding fast among the female clients in the remote areas across the country, but the services still remained well behind the level as expected by Bangladesh Bank, officials said.

They said the agent banks were mainly providing the deposit collection services to the customers while the lending services were not up to the desired level.

According to the BB data, the number of female accountholders increased to about 2.3 million in December 2019 from only 850,247 in December 2018. In the quarter ended in September 2019, the number of female accountholders was about 1.5 million.

At the end of 2019, the total number of accountholders was 5.2 million - 43 per cent female and 56 per cent male.

The central bank had allowed the agent banking window of the banks in 2013 with a target to widen the financial inclusion through providing banking services, including lending products, to the rural areas.

The central bank has so far awarded 24 banks with the agent banking licences - 21 are now operating. Bank Asia has the highest number of female accountholders with 1.1 million, followed by Dutch-Bangla Bank with 577,729 and Islami Bank Bangladesh with 148,278.

However, the banks are not interested in loan disbursement on excuse of the agents' incapability to process the loan proposals, said an official at the central bank.

"The mission of financial inclusion is not fulfilled as the banks are collecting deposits from the rural areas through the agent banking units and transferring the money to the city for the benefit of big players," he added.

According to a quarterly report (October-December, 2019) of the Financial Inclusion Department (FID) of BB, in 2019 the agent banks disbursed loans of Tk 4.46 billion, only about 6.0 per cent of Tk 75.17 billion deposits collected by the agent banks from the clients during the period.

Of the loans, 59 per cent disbursed among the male customers as compared to only 7.0 per cent to female customers. Other small enterprises received 34 per cent.

A high official at the department admitted that the rate of loan disbursement is still very low.

The central bank officials said they started collecting data only on the number of female accountholders in 2018.

"So, it's difficult now to explain as to why the female accountholders were increasing fast," said one of them.

However, he said, the gap in the number of male and female accountholders is reducing gradually as the growth rate of female accountholders is faster than their male counterpart.

[email protected]