Reaching the financial inclusion goal would take 200 years for Bangladesh if the country keeps working at the current pace in the area, said Shah Md Ahsan Habib, a professor at the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), today. 

He said Bangladesh is doing well in various social indicators among South Asian nations, but when it comes to creating access for women in the financial sector, the country is lagging behind. 

"So, financial service providers would have to change their mindset and design their products and services keeping the needs and requirements of women." 

He made the comments at a half-day workshop on "Gender Responsive Financial Services" at the auditorium of the BIBM in the capital, according to a press release of the institute.  

The workshop was organised by the BIBM and the Centre for Research & Development (CRD) as part of a project aligned with the national goal of attaining financial inclusion of 100 per cent adult population by 2026 as part of the National Inclusion Strategy (NFISB).

Gender-responsive financial services are essential for Bangladesh to attain 100 per cent financial inclusion, said experts. 

In order to ensure sustainable development, it is important that financial service providers should be more gender-sensitive in providing their products, they said. 

Bangladesh should minimise the gender gap through financial inclusion in order to attain the goals of the NFIS-B and the vision 2041, said experts. 

The objective of the workshop was to identify the challenges of the gender gap in financial inclusion. 

Participants of the workshop called for raising awareness among the service recipients.

Md Mokhlesur Rahman, chief executive officer of the CRD, Prof Md Nehal Ahmed, a member of the BIBM-CRD study team, and Md Akhtaruzzaman, director-general of the BIBM, also spoke. 

Eighty participants, including senior executives of microfinance institutions and mobile financial service providers, took part in the programme, said the press release.