Marvi for poverty alleviation through investment in women empowerment

Islamabad

Minister of State and Benazir Income Support Programme chairperson MNA Marvi Memon on Friday said investing in women's economic empowerment set a direct path towards poverty alleviation and financial inclusiveness.

"The BISP is key to financial inclusiveness and literacy in Pakistan. It is because of BISP that an uneducated BISP beneficiary can use debit cards," she said during the 'International Symposium: the contribution of conditional cash transfer programs to the creation of Social Protection System with rights-based approach' arranged by the Ministry of Social Development and National Coordination of PROSPERA Programa de Inclusion Social with the support of World Bank at Mexico City, said a press release received here.

Ms Memon said the BISP had contributed a lot to the financial inclusion of the poorest of the poor population of Pakistan in line with the overall financial inclusion strategy of Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar.

"5.3 million BISP beneficiaries are paid through technology based mechanisms backed with branchless banking accounts," she said.

The BISP chairperson said the timely delivery of cash in a predictable manner using state of the art technology through 15,000 touch points across the country had become a major contribution to the financial inclusion of the poorest.

She said the BISP started its payments through Pakistan Post Office, moved to debit card, mobile banking and now is shifting its payments to biometric payment system, while it was also moving to level 0 accounts fully regulated by State Bank of Pakistan and thus, providing various features conducive to the financial inclusion activities.

"The BISP experience of different payment modes is the full circle in terms of building blocks for financial inclusion," she said. Memon said financial literacy trainings by BISP have brought a positive change in lives of its beneficiaries.

"Once without the national identity card, BISP beneficiaries now have their own bank accounts and can use ATM and other cash withdrawal mechanisms easily besides using these ID cards for various other market related activities," she said. The BISP chairperson said the programme trained women leaders who further imparted training to other beneficiaries through more than 50,000 BISP Beneficiary Committees (BBCs).