Sri Lanka to develop National Financial Inclusion Strategy focusing on payment gateways and digital financial services
The government of Sri Lanka is reportedly in the process of developing a National Financial Inclusion Strategy with focus on payment gateways and digital financial services. This move is part of the government’s policy to broaden the effort to improve accessibility to finance and global markets for citizens and small businesses.
Separate working committees have been set up to look into establishing a national payments gateway and improving infrastructure to support digital financial services platforms, media reports state.
Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Indrajit Coomaraswamy has said, “That’s very much part of the agenda. It’s a priority.”
The Governor has made this statement at the launch of the Development Process for Sri Lanka’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
“We’re taking a holistic view of what financial inclusion means. We will look at access to markets, and not just financial services and payment gateways,” the Governor has said.
“For successful implementation of this process high level political commitment is required,” Coomaraswamy has also noted.
“Most of all, active participation and commitment of all stakeholders who have been identified and whose representatives are included in the steering committee and the working committees, is essential.”
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the Word Bank, is to provide technical and financial assistance to the Central Bank to spearhead the initiative.
According to reports, the formulation and implementation of a national financial inclusion strategy will place Sri Lanka among more than 60 countries that have launched or are in the process of developing such strategies.
OSL take:
The development of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy with focus on payment gateways and digital financial services would improve the accessibility to finance and global markets for small businesses in Sri Lanka. This would result in the opening up of many business opportunities in Sri Lanka and with the new schemes introduced by the Sri Lankan government to provide funding to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it would result in the improvement of doing-business climate in the country.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20180322/Z_2 |