Unilever, JazzCash, WWB to empower low-income women

Unilever Pakistan, JazzCash, Women's World Banking and Karandaaz Pakistan have announced their collaboration to empower low-income women by enhancing the availability of financial services and promoting financial inclusion.
The partnership, announced on Friday, brought together the technical expertise of mobile financial services' provider JazzCash and Unilever Pakistan Limited. The project will be executed in Pakistan with the support of the Pakistani non-profit development finance company, Karandaaz Pakistan, and Women's World Banking. Their partnership is aimed at researching, designing and developing an agent banking model that will serve low-income women who often face barriers to accessing formal financial services.
The project builds on the Unilever's vast network of Guddi Baajis, female retail agents, who sell Unilever products in rural and low-income communities across Pakistan. The Women's World Banking, which has nearly 40-year experience of researching women's lives to develop and test solutions will enable these Guddi Baajis to serve as mobile banking agents. These female entrepreneurs will be an extension of Jazz's retail network, making the JazzCash mobile account available to women in rural neighborhoods using mobile and digital technology. This type of agent banking allows women to save their earning near their homes, cutting the cost of transport and time away from home and work.
"JazzCash endeavours to provide basic financial services to the unbanked segment in Pakistan," said Jazz CEO, Aamir Ibrahim, adding: "We want more women to use financial services and by adding women to the agent network, we hope we can cater to their financial needs at our outlets by providing them with a comfortable environment to conduct their business.
He further said that women should also be given opportunities to move ahead like men. He said the collaboration would help the women at grassroots level to become entrepreneurs and enable them to become part of financial inclusion.
Chairperson and CEO Unilever Pakistan, Shazia Syed, said Guddi Baaji initiative empowers rural women by enhancing livelihoods and increasing influence within their communities. "We are breaking gender stereotypes and creating role models. I am confident that our partnership with Jazz will increase opportunities for women in rural Pakistan through the power of mobile," she said.
Women's World Banking will work closely with Karandaaz Pakistan, which promotes financial inclusion for individuals by employing technology-based digital solutions. The experiences of the two organizations would help them develop successful agent banking models to serve women and guide this project.
Anna Gincherman, Chief Product Development Officer at the Women's World Banking, highlighted the value of agent banking to women's financial inclusion, saying: "Women already know and trust these shops and can now make deposits and withdrawals there rather than storing cash at home where it can slip through their fingers."
She said that agents hold tremendous promise for bringing a woman into the formal financial system where she can open a bank account in her own name, plan for her future, build a safety net for times of crisis, and even grow her business.
The CEO of Karandaaz Pakistan, Ali Sarfraz, emphasized the role of digitization in bringing financial inclusion of women, saying that: "Fostering financial inclusion of women is a core theme for Karandaaz Pakistan. If we have to make any tangible progress on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, Pakistan needs to act immediately to ensure women's participation in the process of development."