pi STRATEGY research finds that 77% of the population experienced a reduction in household income during Covid-19. Many had to borrow to put food on the table. However, those with MFS account seemed to have been able to better withstand the shock.
The gender gap in financial inclusion decreased to 24% in 2020. And women’s use digital payments were less impacted during Covid-19 than that of men’s.
The research was conducted with 1,000+ people across Bangladesh during April – August 2020 and interviews with 30+ senior officials of MFS providers, banks, MFIs, insurance agencies, among others. It also leveraged pi STRATEGY’s decade-long proprietary insights repository to assess the shifts in usage over time.
This report was launched in December 2020 in collaboration with the Dhaka Tribune, A2I, and CGAP.
pi STRATEGY