Study on Deposit Mobilization for Readymade Garments Workers in Bangladesh
For a developing country like Bangladesh, the readymade garments (RMG) sector is the country's primary foreign exchange revenue generator. It has provided employment to about three million workers, with 85 percent being young, poor and semi-li...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
International Finance Corporation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/742101492768893495/Study-on-deposit-mobilization-for-readymade-garments-workers-in-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26554 |
| Summary: | For a developing country like
Bangladesh, the readymade garments (RMG) sector is the
country's primary foreign exchange revenue generator.
It has provided employment to about three million workers,
with 85 percent being young, poor and semi-literate women.
The sector is growing at sixteen percent annually, but
workers cannot leverage this effectively, as they lack
access to suitable financial services and face security
risks due to receiving wages in cash. The recent
developments in banking technology have transformed banking
from the traditional brick-and-mortar infrastructure of
staffed branches to a system supplemented by other channels
like automated teller machines (ATM), credit or debit cards,
internet banking, online money transfers, etc. Access to
such technology, however, is still restricted only to
certain segments of the society. For the financially
excluded such as RMG workers, small entrepreneurs, etc.,
opening and maintaining bank accounts, especially in a
country like Bangladesh, can be complex and time-consuming
due to lack of awareness, accessibility and availability of
targeted products. As part of its agenda to promote
financial inclusion in Bangladesh, IFC is focused on
providing access to finance to underserved segments through
building the financial sector’s awareness. This report
highlights key trends, challenges, and opportunities for
banking services for RMG workers and increasing their access
to finance. Due to their high growth potential of the
sector, RMG employees are of particular interest. The report
therefore identifies: (i) constraints and opportunities for
scalable approaches to increase access to finance for RMG
employees; (ii) pinpoint specific knowledge gaps for which
further training is recommended; and (iii) provide
recommendations on expanding access to finance for RMG employees. |
|---|