AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF FINACIAL INCLUSION IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

There is low financial inclusion across developing countries and Pakistan is one of them. This study examines the determinants of financial inclusion in Pakistan with two dimensions which are bank account and mobile money account. The data used in the analyses came from 6000 individual adults across Pakistan from Financial Inclusion Insight 2017 and included people across different ages, occupations, geographical locations, and gender. Using the logistic model, the determinants of financial inclusion were estimated. The results show that Age of individuals, Income earner, educated, financial literacy, married, owning a smart phone, male, getting money from the government, and getting money from agriculture and livestock are the significant determinants for both bank accounts and mobile money accounts in Pakistan. However females, rural poor, and single are insignificant determinants of financial inclusion in Pakistan. The implication of this for policy is that there is the need for governments of Pakistan, to formulate a holistic financial framework that seeks to mitigate the negative factors of financial inclusion and sustained the positive ones. It is recommended that such a policy framework should be politically neutral, economically viable, gender-sensitive, socially stable, and financially feasible to make it sustainable.