State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will launch a dedicated website and helpline service for the public in order to promote financial literacy among the public.
The central bank is implementing NFLP as one of its flagship programs to provide basic financial education to unbanked & low-income strata, especially the youth & women.
The program is funded from Asian Development Bank’s ‘Improving Access to Finance Facility’ and is being rolled out in different phases to complete its objective of reaching one million beneficiaries in 5 years, through a unique public-private model, which engages banking institutions and SBP-BSC field offices to impart NFLP messages in far-flung areas of Pakistan.
It is important to mention here that the program launched on pilot basis, from August 2017 in 77 districts of the country, has now entered into the second year of implementation. The scope of the project has been extended to all 158 districts of the country. The education on different financial themes like budgeting, savings, investments, debt management, consumers’ rights & obligations, Islamic banking, branchless banking and currency management is imparted through dedicated half-day classroom trainings.
NFLP aims to empower the public in making effective decisions regarding the use of financial and allied services. Further, it will enhance competitiveness, foster innovations and increase the efficiency of the financial industry to provide better financial services to financially educated citizens.
The Asian Development Bank with IAFF, and NFLP out reach the beneficiaries in 1 year is very low figure. What are the cellular services companies. I had subscribed to Zong collaborative partner Askari Bank at the inaugural ceremony which is still without a single transaction, whereas the services of Telenor, UPaisa, and MobiCash are every bright and gold. The major task should be given to mobile service companies to give the task on the phone to consumers, and possibly be outsourced. The mobile company’s just blow farts, with a silencer. If you blow, blow like a blow up, and should deliver. The sector should participate as part of awareness of digitalisation to the general public. Which to some extent by Telenor, followed by UPaisa, and Jaaz Cash. Rest is halla gulla. I suggest to please penalise the mobile companies for the non compliance of the licensing, before the GSMA 2019 in Bacelona where they should bring home the essential as coordinates in the cell phones i.e., Longitude, latitude which is being used by international agencies to collect population data by mobile taxi service. The digital financial services are serious matters and the best company which delivered is Telenor, but they closed all their customer serivce centers in Karachi, and out sourced to pan shops and Gutka, Gathia vendors to each the public. This is the state of affairs of the telecom., sector and the regulator role.