• KIM

By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –

THE World Bank Group has said more than 700 million people have gained financial access between 2011 and 2014.
“More than 700 million people gained financial access between 2011 and 2014, and this gives us fresh evidence that our ambitious goal of universal access by 2020 is attainable,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.
Dr Kim said this here at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Spring Meeting.
World Bank Group and a broad coalition of partners – including multilateral agencies, banks, credit unions, card networks,
microfinance institutions and telecommunications companies – issued numeric commitments that will help promote financial inclusion and achieve universal financial access by 2020.
Dr Kim said financial inclusion was cardinal to the growth of the economies.
Galvanising private-sector investment and innovation to accelerate universal financial access, including through enabling policy and regulatory frameworks, was the focus of a flagship event at the World Bank headquarters.
It brought together private-sector leaders, government regulators and the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The 2020 goal calls for adults worldwide to have access to a transaction account or an electronic instrument to store money, send and receive payments, recognising financial access as a basic building block to managing an individual’s financial life.
Access to a transaction account is a first step toward broader financial inclusion, which helps poor families escape poverty and afford essential social services such as water, electricity, housing,education and health care.
For small firms and medium-sized enterprises access to financing can help them reduce risks, grow and expand operations.
Priority actions include reforms to eliminate or reduce cost or distance barriers to opening and using accounts, measures that increase the viability of new technology and business models to reach the financially excluded.
The Bank Group’s private-sector arm, IFC, is also boosting its engagement with the private sector to add millions of new account
holders through its investment and advisory work with financial intermediaries and other partners.
Today’s commitments are an important step forward. Many national leaders have already taken bold steps to expand financial access in their own countries.
Private-sector leaders from around the world came forward with a committed set of actions to reach a specific number of people by year 2020.
Several leaders of emerging markets companies also made concrete commitments towards reaching the goal.