Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will launch Pakistan's first-ever National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) on Friday in Islamabad. The strategy has been agreed to at the national level following extensive consultation with stakeholders. It is being championed by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), with shared leadership from the Ministry of Finance and Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). Pakistan has developed its first-ever National Financial Inclusion Strategy to build a momentum and push forward reforms to achieve universal financial inclusion in an integrated and sustained manner.

The strategy has created a national vision for universal financial inclusion in Pakistan. A national co-ordination platform for all stakeholders from both public and private sectors has also been set up for implementation of the reforms and various initiatives for financial inclusion under the strategy. The NFIS co-ordination structure envisages three governance bodies - a NFIS Council, NFIS Steering Committee and various Technical Committees. The NFIS Council is chaired by the Finance Minister to oversee the implementation of NFIS. The council had its first meeting in April 2015 to adopt the strategy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015