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This study aims to assess and rank all thanas in Bangladesh according to their performance in financial inclusion. It employed a composite index for that purpose, using three proxies of financial inclusion: deposit per account, advance per account, and advance deposit ratio. Cross-sectional data obtained from the Scheduled Banks Statistics of Bangladesh Bank are utilized to rank 615 thanas in Bangladesh. It categorizes 615 thanas into three classifications: high, medium, and poor financial inclusion. There are large differences in the availability and utilization of financial services among thanas. Thanas have a low level of integration into the formal financial system, as indicated by the average financial inclusion index of 0.068 and a maximum of 0.628. The rate of financial inclusion is continuously lower in rural, remote, and hilly regions compared to economically active and urban areas. Kotwali in Chattogram, Dhaka, etc., is a higher-ranked thana that demonstrates stronger financial inclusion, with higher per-account values and greater reliance on credit. By comparison, the lower-ranked thanas such as Ramgati, Char Shasivuson, Madan etc. are characterized by a low level of financial integration, poor institutionalization as well as extensive use of informal finance. The paper concludes that the present policy actions have failed to create broad financial inclusion improvements. It proposes multi-dimensional interventions, which are focused to tackle the urban-rural divide. This study will provide the policy makers with useful information to determine the actual situation by determining the highly included and excluded thanas in Bangladesh. Eventually, it will help the interested parties to develop thana or area-based measures to secure financial inclusiveness of all that result to promoting comprehensive and sustainable economic development. The study is also unique because it is likely to be the first initiative that has attempted the study at micro level i.e. thana based analysis of financial inclusion in Bangladesh.

A country's ability to develop depends on the empowerment of its women. Evidence from several countries indicates that giving Self-Help Group (SHG) member’s microcredit can help empower rural women. The main objective of the study is impact of creation of SHGs on rural women in Assam. Also purpose of this research was to determine how well SHGs in Assam contribute to women's economic empowerment. The study's primary data came from interviews with SHG beneficiaries conducted in the Bongaigaon District of Assam. In all, sixty samples are gathered from two blocks of the Bongaigaon district. According to the survey, the majority of respondents are between the ages of 25 and 45, and they have completed elementary and middle level of school. After joining SHGs, participants engaged in a variety of income-generating activities. The outcome demonstrated a favorable shift in economic empowerment metrics, such as income, employment, and savings, following SHG membership. For the economic indicators, the estimated value of the Wilcoxon signed Ranks Test was significant. It was found that, in comparison to the pre-SHG scenario, the majority of the respondents' income, employment days, and savings amount rose in the post-SHG scenario. Therefore, the study came to the conclusion that SHGs were essential to rural women's empowerment in the study region.

In the quest to achieve SDG 1 on eradicating poverty, improving savings rates in East Africa is crucial, as it lays the foundation for reducing financial vulnerability and achieving economic resilience. This paper investigated the determinants of individual savings in selected East African countries. Specifically, internet access, financial inclusion, and borrowing were the covariates while individual savings in East Africa were the predicted. This study utilized data from the Global Findex 2021 World Bank database. This dataset was selected because it is one of the most comprehensive databases on financial inclusion, providing a comprehensive view of adults' savings, borrowing, payments, and risk management across global and regional contexts. This study used a basic framework to explore the factors influencing individual savings by examining production, income distribution, and accumulation. A panel data logistic regression model was utilized, and Instrumental Variables (2SLS) regression was employed to test endogeneity. The Sargan and Basmann tests assessed overidentification restrictions to validate the instruments. Shea’s partial R-squared measured the unique contribution of each instrument in explaining the variation in endogenous variables, accounting for the influence of other instruments and endogenous variables. The Hausman test which model was suitable for panel data modeling. The 2SLS regression showed no evidence of endogeneity, as internet access was insignificant with a high p-value (> 0.05). Overidentification tests confirmed instrument validity with p-values of 0.1018 and 0.1016. However, Shea’s partial R-squared revealed weak instruments, especially for borrowing, with an adjusted value of 0.0328. Results revealed that borrowing is strongly and positively associated with saving. The higher the borrowing, the more the savings. In East Africa, most borrowers are savers. These use the borrowed funds to create an injection of income flow through capital accumulation. Internet access significantly predicts savings in East Africa today. In this digital era, most businesses are run online. Therefore, it is almost impossible to save with no internet access. Similarly, those who use digital payment systems are most likely to enhance their savings. Age and gender do not influence the saving of an individual in East Africa. Likely, owning a financial account does not translate to more savings. Most East Africans have non-functional bank accounts. Education levels significantly influence the savings of individuals in East Africa. Highly educated people utilize financial literacy skills to save more. Being out of the workforce reduces individual savings since most of these are out of the working age. 

Financial inclusion, especially the adoption of fintech, has emerged as a crucial avenue for removing the financial access divides in developing countries, including Bangladesh. Following the comprehensive analysis, this article intends to outline Bangladesh's recent experiences with fintech-based financial inclusion, identify the short-comings and hence make policy suggestions. Being a descriptive research, cross-sectional and observational research approaches are applied for the explanatory analysis of secondary data. Results suggest an urban-rural gap in the implementation of digital financial services, with urban areas consistently having higher rates of fully online branches and a greater number of financial machines. Despite this, the sharp rise in the issuance of active cards is a positive sign suggesting an expansion of consumer base and an adoption of electronic modes of payment. Moreover, inter-bank electronic fund transfers and online banking have experienced increasing uptake, revealing a progressing trend towards digital transactions within the banking industry. Additionally, the study identifies a speedy growth in the number of mobile financial services accounts in both urban and rural areas. This study adds to the exchange of ideas regarding financial inclusion by carrying out a detailed study of Bangladesh's digital financial transformation, exemplifying the accomplishments, obstacles, and future research directions. It highlights the need for targeted policies and ongoing research efforts to build inclusive financial systems to serve the entire society’s interest. Nevertheless, the observations will have both theoretical and practical significance, contributing towards building capability in harnessing technology for sustainability, community uplifting, and shaping a brighter future.  

In the past decade, Southeast Asia has seen the development of financial inclusion, as evidenced by the growth of the penetration, availability, and usage dimensions of financial inclusion. This study analyses the impact financial inclusion has on economic growth, represented by GDP per capita growth, and unemployment using data from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia. The authors employed panel data regression with fixed effect and random effect models to analyse the data. The results show that the number of commercial bank branches and outstanding loans statistically significantly affect GDP per capita growth, while the number of saving/deposit accounts does not. All three variables are shown to have a statistically significant impact on unemployment.

The purpose of this study is to examine the drivers of the ownership and use of mobile accounts as compared to those of financial institution accounts in Côte d’Ivoire. In this perspective, individual level data from the Global Findex 2017 database were used to carry out simple probit and Heckman probit estimations. The results revealed that the ownership of mobile accounts is associated with determinants related to individuals in the least vulnerable strata of society (wealthier and more educated individuals and individuals in the labour force), while their use is associated with determinants related to individuals in the most vulnerable strata of society (women and individuals out of the labour force). On the other hand, the ownership and use of financial institution accounts are associated with the determinants related to individuals in the least vulnerable strata of society. Therefore, the delay between the financial institution accounts’ penetration rate and that of mobile accounts in Côte d’Ivoire may be explained by the greater use of mobile accounts by individuals in the most vulnerable strata of society, which represent the large share of the unbanked.

Financial inclusion has become a topic of discussion in emerging and developing nations since the majority of people continue to lack access to either formal or informal financial services. In many countries, the post office is seen as a vehicle for financial inclusion due to its extensive network. In addition, with the decline in sales of their core business, traditional mail has exacerbated the need for the post office to venture into financial services whilst simultaneously answering the call to bridge the gap in society, especially for the un-banked and under-banked communities. Moreover, there is a need for post-offices to protect their long-term vitality as a business. This paper provides a theoretical perspective of financial inclusion, the role that the post office can play and the challenges preventing an effective rollout of financial services. This review can help postal managers, governments and policy-makers to understand how they can effectively use the post office to serve the un-banked communities. In addition, the study has enriched the academic discourse by providing literature on postal financial services and financial inclusion.

The paper focuses on a scantly researched phenomenon, namely, the extent to which financial inclusion is influenced by corporate governance practices. The question that normally arises is whether corporate governance practices are tailored to supporting the financial inclusion mandate. The other question is whether there are certain corporate governance practices that advance financial inclusion. This paper reviews extant empirical literature on these matters with a view of stimulating debate on the subject. Cognisant that institutions that advance financial inclusion are largely financial institutions, the starting point is relating to contemporary corporate governance practice in financial institutions. We know that financial institutions belong to a specific class of corporations whose failure affects society at large because of the financial services they provide. As a result, they are heavily regulated and their corporate governance structures are bound to differ from those of conventional firms. Similarly, we know that financial inclusion institutions are special types of financial institutions with mandates to provide financial services to underserved population segments which equally require special treatment. The scant literature available shows, albeit not conclusive, some evidence of a positive relationship between sound corporate governance and financial inclusion. However, more research on how corporate governance affects different dimensions of financial inclusion is recommended.

The paper investigates whether financial literacy influences financial inclusion in Uganda on the premise that there are currently few to no studies that investigate this causality and the general lack of consensus on an appropriate measure for financial literacy. It uses data from the FinScope (2018) consumer survey on Uganda and applies Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to construct a composite financial literacy index of the adult bankable population (16 years and older). The index is then regressed - alongside other demand-side control variables, against a measure of financial inclusion using logistic models. Our measure of financial literacy significantly and positively affects financial inclusion in Uganda even in the presence of variables like age, gender, income, and education. Individuals who make financial ends meet, plan for their financial future welfare, seek financial advice, and are receptive towards technology, are 'ceteris paribus', more likely to be financially included than not. Technology and mobile money adoption enhance financial inclusion while more men are financially included than women. While the dataset is limited to demand-side variables of Uganda and cannot be generalised, comparative cross-country studies with robust datasets are needed to provide further insights. The paper advances a novel approach for measuring financial literacy for developing economies while contributing to efforts to standardize an international measure. It also provides empirical insights to support the notion that financial literacy should be addressed more holistically and recommends this approach for improving financial inclusion in Uganda and globally.

This paper attempts to find out why higher institution students in Duhok are not opening or having bank accounts. With the use of interview process and questionnaire, 100 students were selected from Newroz University, Dohok Polytechnic University and Dohok private technical institute in Duhok city.  It was found from this study that most of these students’ approximately 90 students of them have no bank accounts while only 10 of them have bank accounts. Moreover, this research found that trust on banks, security, bad banks infrastructure, lack of money, costs of opening bank accounts, access to bank accounts and unemployment are the main reasons for low banking interest among students in Duhok city. However, the highest reason is lack of trust on Duhok banks and lack of money due to high unemployment rate. It is suggested that banks in Duhok city should encourage students to open bank accounts by advertising the importance of banking services and offer student loans. Also, Duhok government should award scholarship to student to ease the pressure from the unemployment menace in the country. Keywords: Un-bank, Bank trust, Poverty, Banking access

<p><em>The study examines the perceptions of the services of the micro finance Institutions by the women service users, and how the services of micro Institutions affect businesses of the beneficiaries of the micro credit loans. The research design for the study was the survey method. The instruments of data collection were structured questionnaires and in-depth interview. A total of 450 questionnaires were administered to the female participants, and senior management personnel of the micro credit institutions were interviewed. The cluster and simple random sampling were used to select the participants for the study. The leaders of registered unions were the informants.  The result reveals that the poor services and attitude of officials of micro finance institutions and other problems like the regressive tax regimes, harsh economic climate and patriarchy are negatively affecting the business ventures of the loan beneficiaries and by implication the goals of poverty reduction via micro credit scheme . The women beneficiaries are groaning under the burden of loan repayment and meeting other obligations as mothers and wives. This study is applicable in the context of social policy development at this time when social services delivery is not only poor but at dismal level. The need for gender sensitive and social development becomes imperative. It is critical to social work practice in the context of advocacy, empowerment programs, facilitating and initiating service delivery and Community organizing by social workers that will enhance the war against Poverty and other social impediments against women empowerment in Nigeria.</em></p>

The majority of income earners of small-scale informal economic sectors in most developing regions abstain from mainstream formal banking systems. These income earners rather “bank” informally. Mainstream formal banking institutions also argue that low income earners are “unbankable” and posed business risk. However, emerging literature posits that low income earners would instead provide a profitable formal niche market. Trends with regard adoption and non-adoption of mainstream formal banking systems amongst small income groups were mixed. This paper investigates such patterns in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results of this paper revealed that the informal cross-border traders who trade between Zambia and South Africa were good adopters of mainstream formal banking. The results however found a sharp contrast in Zambia. In Nyanga, Zimbabwe, the results of this paper revealed that there were a few respondents who had adopted mainstream formal banking while 47.2% of communal cattle farmers in South Africa had adopted mainstream formal banking systems through savings against 52.8% who were left out. Adoption or non-adoption of mainstream formal banking systems patterns vary from region to region, and sector to sector even where income earners were almost equals in terms of household income earnings. Mobile banking and low transaction costs might provide motivation for small-scale income earners to adopt mainstream formal banking.  

The present study seeks to examine the role of microfinance and its impact on economic and social empowerment of women. The study used multi-stage stratified proportionate random sampling technique in the selection of the representative district, mandal/taluka, villages and households. Empirically acclaimed logistic regression model has been employed for analyzing significant impact of plausible socio-economic factors on women empowerment. The study found that the socio-economic indicators have undergone significant changes. It also emerged that there has been an increase in women participation in the household decision making process. The study suggests that the government should prepare suitable plans and programmes for the social and economic empowerment of women. The study also suggests that policy measures such as increase in frequency of SHG meeting, SHG training programme, increase in loan amount and ensuring effective utilization of the loan, may be the useful initiatives to enhance women empowerment, income and employment opportunities.

The study examines the perceptions of the services of the micro finance Institutions by the women service users, and how the services of micro Institutions affect businesses of the beneficiaries of the micro credit loans. The research design for the study was the survey method. The instruments of data collection were structured questionnaires and in-depth interview. A total of 450 questionnaires were administered to the female participants, and senior management personnel of the micro credit institutions were interviewed. The cluster and simple random sampling were used to select the participants for the study. The leaders of registered unions were the informants.  The result reveals that the poor services and attitude of officials of micro finance institutions and other problems like the regressive tax regimes, harsh economic climate and patriarchy are negatively affecting the business ventures of the loan beneficiaries and by implication the goals of poverty reduction via micro credit scheme . The women beneficiaries are groaning under the burden of loan repayment and meeting other obligations as mothers and wives. This study is applicable in the context of social policy development at this time when social services delivery is not only poor but at dismal level. The need for gender sensitive and social development becomes imperative. It is critical to social work practice in the context of advocacy, empowerment programs, facilitating and initiating service delivery and Community organizing by social workers that will enhance the war against Poverty and other social impediments against women empowerment in Nigeria.

Many credit schemes in Tanzania channel their funds to women with the objective of alleviating poverty among them. Despite this, majority of women in the country continue to wallow in poverty. The present research was carried out among the Foundation for International Community Assistance’s women credit beneficiaries in Mwanza. The study set out to address the following objectives: to analyze the influence of the husband’s cooperation, relevant training and interest rate on poverty alleviation among women credit beneficiaries in Tanzania taking Foundation for International Community Assistance in Mwanza as a case study. Using simple regression model, results showed that cooperation from the husband as well as relevant training influences poverty alleviation among women credit beneficiaries in Tanzania by 56 and 36 percent respectively. But interest rate was found to have no significant influence at all. The paper recommends that seminars be conducted so that husbands can be taught the importance of cooperating with their wives. Above all giving training to women credit beneficiaries will go a long way in sharpening their business skills. Future researchers should research on laziness and complacency among women credit beneficiaries and the influence on poverty.  

This study is a discussion on the ‘Non-Governmental Organization-Microfinance Institution Partnership Model’ and ‘Securitization Model’ used by Indian microfinance institutions to achieve cost efficiency. These two models are effective strategies devised and used by efficient and sustainable Indian MFIs to reduce their operating cost and financing cost. Achieving such cost efficiency is crucial for microfinance institutions to attain operational self-sustainability without levying high interest rates. Using interview method the study elicits information on these innovative strategies and recommends them to be worthy of emulation for other microfinance institutions operating in the Indian microfinance industry.

Less attention has been given to well-being and other household characteristics that influence clients’ access to micro-credit among women households especially. The paper investigates the determinants of access to credit by 320 women entrepreneurs in the Mfantsiman Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana. Data for the study was collected in June-July 2010 from six communities including Mankessim, Saltpond, Anomabu, Biriwa and Yamoransa. Sturctured questionnaires were used to collect the data from women entrepreneurs. The results of the study indicate that clients’ well-being influences access to credit amount. Clients who have been in business for long time are likely to access larger loan amounts. Marital status and education do not influence access to credit. Among the recommendations are that microfinance should not only target clients with high well-being scores but those with low well-being scores since the original aim of microfinance is to lift the poor out of poverty. It is important to give credit to aged business owners instead of young ones. Giving credit to married women because their husbands could serve as guarantors does not matter much but rather women who do not have husbands also need to benefit from micro-credit.