ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
JazzCash, Pakistan’s premiere financial services provider and global nonprofit Women’s World Bankingtodayannounce a partnership to promote women’s financial inclusion across Pakistan.With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the partners will work to increase low-income women’sadoption and use of digital financial services, particularlythe JazzCash mobile account.
Commenting on this partnership, Aniqa Afzal Sandhu, Chief Digital and Financial Services Officer of Jazz, said,“We are delighted to partner with Women’s World Banking, as they have done pioneering work on empowering women financially in other markets. We look forward to the research findings astheywill enable JazzCash to increase financial inclusion of the marginalized and disenfranchised women across Pakistan.”
“We commend JazzCash for seeing women’s longstanding financial exclusion as we always have: an opportunity rather than an obstacle,” said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO ofWomen’s World Banking. “With amobile savings tool like JazzCash, a woman, who may not have otherwise had access, can open a bank account in her own name without taking time away from her busy day. She can plan for her future, build a safety net for times of crisis, and even grow her business.”
The project will engagenonprofit behavioral design and research firm ideas42 and will leverage global best practices in reaching women withdigital financial services, including Women’s World Banking’s projects in Nigeria and other markets.The results will have a global impact as well,not only building understanding of howdigital financial services work for low-income women in Pakistan, butalso informingsimilar initiatives to reach unbanked women regionally and globally.