By Hina Kiyani
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Dr. Sania Nishtar Wednesday revealed that the children of the Ehsaas beneficiaries will be trained on financial and digital literacy for better impact.
She stated this while chairing a meeting held here to take stock of the key findings of the qualitative study with Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries. The study was commissioned by Ehsaas in collaboration with Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
The main focus of the research was to gain insights into beneficiary saving behavior. Findings shall inform the design of a financial and digital literacy training program under the recently rolled out Ehsaas Saving Wallets initiative.
Opening the meeting, Dr. Nishtar stated, “Exclusion from the formal financial system is linked with low levels of human and economic development. Therefore, financial inclusion is one of the seven goals of Ehsaas.
The recently launched Ehsaas Savings Wallets initiative will enable women to save, invest in small businesses, access loans, and thereby create income and employment, and pay for emergency expenditures. The initiative will also focus on financial literacy of Kafaalat beneficiaries.’
The meeting discussed research findings from focus group discussions moderated in five districts of Pakistan. The study explored the current saving behaviour, financial literacy and education, and digital literacy of Ehsaas Kafaalat beneficiaries.
Regarding saving behaviour of Kafaalat beneficiaries, the study revealed that a cumulative saving figure at the end of the month averages between Rs.500-1000.
