The launching ceremony of “Sarathi”, a 30-month-long project targeted towards the financial inclusion of RMG workers, especially women, took place on Thursday at Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka.
A joint venture by Metlife Foundation and Swisscontact Bangladesh, the project aims to find market-based and scalable solutions to address inadequate financial literacy and lack of access to formal banking services. The launch ceremony included two sessions – an opening session and a panel discussion.
Anirban Bhowmik, country director of Swisscontact Bangladesh in his speech at the opening session talked about the interventions of Swisscontact Bangladesh impacting the core areas of skills development, enterprise promotion, inclusive finance, and climate-smart economy.
Sarathi, a part of the inclusive finance interventions of Swisscontact Bangladesh, gives access to financial services to RMG workers so they can deposit their savings. He said: “Economic development is a puzzle we need to solve together. Though the challenge is herculean, Swisscontact takes a mutual learning model to ensure financial inclusion. The private sector should come forward not just for their own good, but also for the greater good”.
The pilot phase of Sarathi project was first kicked off in January of 2016 which completed in December of 2017, where around 1,100 RMG workers were benefited under the project, reports UNB.
In a project presentation, Sarathi’s team leader, Kazi Mahfuz Mamtazur Rahman, specifically highlighted the point that SDGs do not explicitly target financial inclusion and described the collaborative role of Metlife and Swisscontact in strategically addressing the problem of financial inclusion.
Currently, Bank Asia and the City Bank Ltd have signed agreement with the Swisscontact.
The project also aims to bring at least 30 RMG factories onboard that are willing to distribute worker’s salary by bank accounts instead of cash.
MA Mannan, MP, minister of state, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Finance said: “Economics is a very sensitive topic. The public sector is proceeding in the whole world. We want a congenial environment where there is a collaborative relationship between public and private sectors.”
The chairman of Metlife Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar, Md Nurul Islam said: “The very nature of business at large is to create value for the world at large”. Md Shafiqur Rahman Patwari, chairman, Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority, in his speech, mentioned how the insurance sector, despite having a long demonstrated work history, has not been able to develop a regulatory framework.
The official logo of Sarathi was unveiled and the guests were presented with crests as a token of appreciation. The session II was a panel discussion headed by Anirban Bhowmik. Representatives from Bank Asia, Citibank, and BGMEA also took part in the discussion to talk about the financial inclusion of RMG workers in Bangladesh.
The event concluded with the team leader of Sarathi answering whether Sarathi can really have an impact. He said that it will have an impact by catalyzing a behavioral shift: “After all, the project’s intervention areas, that is, wage digitization, product development; financial literacy, and collaboration with regulators are concerns of difficult implementation.”
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