Women’s share in agent banking remains far below requirement

The proportion of female agents in Bangladesh's agent banking sector stood at just 9.15 percent as of March this year—well below the Bangladesh Bank's (BB) mandate that women should comprise 50 percent of total agents.

The data were revealed in the central bank's latest Agent Banking report, which notes that the number of female agents increased by 3.4 percent year-on-year, reaching 1,450 by the end of March.

The report states that the growth occurred across both rural and urban areas. However, women still make up less than one-tenth of the total 15,838 agents operating through over 21,000 outlets.

Currently, agent banking services are operated by 31 banks and serve an average of 8,162 people per outlet, the report further states.

The BB data also show that female deposit and loan accounts increased significantly.

During the year, female deposit accounts rose by 11.5 percent, while loan accounts decreased by 0.3 percent.

"This shows a positive trend toward greater financial inclusion for females, especially in rural areas, while urban areas are quickly catching up. Overall, the data reflect growing financial opportunities for females in both urban and rural areas, with strong progress in rural participation," states the BB report.

Agent banking plays a key role in facilitating financial inclusion by reaching underserved and unbanked people, especially in rural areas, providing an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional branch banking.

According to the BB, there are 11,362 bank branches across the country, with each branch serving an average of 15,102 people from the total population. Of them, just over 46 percent are located in rural areas and nearly 54 percent are in urban areas.

On the other hand, 86 percent of the total outlets are located in rural areas, while 14 percent are in urban areas.

The Agent Banking report states that approximately 15 percent of the total number of deposit accounts, at 16.57 lakh in the banking sector, were opened through agent banking outlets, contributing 2.22 percent to the sector's total deposit balances of Tk 19.23 lakh crore at the end of March.

Accordingly, 1.71 percent and 0.61 percent of total bank loan accounts and outstanding loans were respectively provided through agent banking.

As per the report, during the January-March quarter, remittances received from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad amounted to Tk 97,266 crore. Of that, Tk 7,961 crore was received through agent banking.

That indicates 8.19 percent of the total inward remittances during that period were received through agent banking.

The amount of remittances received via agent banking in rural areas was 10.48 times higher than in urban areas. Meanwhile, 4.74 percent of remittances during the quarter were received through mobile financial services.