A joint publication from the Royal Monetary Authority and World Bank titled, “Connecting the Disconnected,” reveals that financial inclusion of Bhutanese women is comparatively higher in South Asia.
The publication, which was launched yesterday, shows the Role of Women in Bhutan suggests they maybe an appropriate target for efforts to increase use of formal financial services.
“So what we find is even though women in Bhutan might actually have be better serve them than women in some other countries in South Asia; there is a huge potential to target them more because of their role in the family,” said the Senior Economist with the World Bank, Cecile Niang. She also said women in those focus groups tend to be more interested in technology. “So if mobile banking is going to take up, perhaps women are good entry point.”
The publication also reveals that the women in the rural area, who bring in farm produce to market and manage household finances at the same time, appear well-informed and knowledgeable about financial products. It says this knowledge, however, are still untapped in the financial market.
The other area, as the publication suggests, is to target youth. The formal financial system, it says, has excluded youth who come from financially disadvantaged family, are landless and informally employed.
“Initially when we started with Happy Green Cooperative, we were these young people in a team who had many ideas and with these ideas when we went to the banks, trying to meet officials, nobody was interested and some did not care to listen. They thought we were young, that we did not have any collateral,” said Sangay Rinchen of Happy Green Cooperative.
Economists say the ability of young people to leverage their skills to earn income will depend partly on access to formal financial services. The report also suggests efforts to tailor financial services to their needs could help stimulate the economy by putting more youth and unemployed to work.
