BRAC Bank leads drive for women’s financial inclusion and empowerment

In a sun-drenched village in southern Bangladesh, entrepreneur Anika Jahan—a BRAC Bank agent—helps hundreds of last-mile customers open bank accounts on her smartphone.

With a few taps, she is not only enabling savings but also helping people take their first steps into the formal economy.

For decades, women like Anika's customers remained invisible to the financial system. That reality is changing, and at the heart of this transformation is BRAC Bank PLC.

Although Bangladesh now ranks as the world's 37th-largest economy, with projections to rise to 21st by 2039, only 43% of citizens hold a formal bank account, according to FINDEX 2025. The gender gap in account ownership stands at 20%—the second highest in South Asia after Pakistan.

A mission rooted in inclusion

Founded in 2001 with the vision of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC Bank was built to reach the "missing middle"—cottage, micro, small, and medium enterprises (CMSMEs) excluded from traditional banking. Its goal extends beyond transactions, focusing on livelihoods, resilience, and empowerment—particularly for women—through tailored financial products and deep community engagement.

Building trust through global partnerships

BRAC Bank's inclusive-finance record has attracted leading development partners, including the Gates Foundation, IFC, ADB, DEG, Water.org, UNEP, Swisscontact, and UNCDF.

In 2023, the Gates Foundation selected BRAC Bank for Bangladesh's largest-ever financial inclusion grant with a commercial bank. The project targets a gender-inclusive ecosystem across SME, retail, and agent banking. So far, over 40,000 women have opened e-KYC accounts, 5,000 rural women access micro-deposit products, and 65,000 women use the Astha app for secure digital banking. Women are also emerging as financial agents themselves under a growing women-led network.

Empowering entrepreneurs

With DEG, the Uddokta 101 Entrepreneurship Accelerator equips women with business knowledge often out of reach due to social barriers. About 500 entrepreneurs have graduated, 70% have fully formalised their ventures, and all saw business growth of 30–40% within six months. Sixteen of the targeted twenty cohorts have already been completed since 2022.

The bank's Shafollo digital platform has issued over 15,000 microloans through a paperless, end-to-end system designed for rural micro-entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, its partnership with Water.org has financed enterprises promoting clean water and sanitation. Within a year, the initiative built a loan portfolio of Tk 280 crore, expected to reach Tk 1,000 crore by 2027—improving health and livelihoods nationwide.

Innovating for the future

In collaboration with DEG Impulse, BRAC Bank is launching Bangladesh's first SME Innovation Lab—a platform to incubate solutions in CMSME growth, climate resilience, smart agriculture, and women's economic empowerment.

Project governance is jointly overseen by BRAC Bank and its development partners, ensuring transparency and alignment with national financial-inclusion goals. The bank also works with Bangladesh Bank, SME Foundation, FMCGs, telecoms, fintechs, and agri-techs to embed inclusion across value chains.

Expanding possibilities

Anika's story is no longer rare—it is becoming typical. Each new account, loan and business adds another ripple in Bangladesh's journey toward inclusive growth.

As BRAC Bank continues to champion financial inclusion, it calls on policymakers, financial institutions, social enterprises and impact investors to collaborate in building a fair and financially empowered Bangladesh—where access to finance is not a privilege, but a right.