Mar 05, Colombo: Central Bank of Sri Lanka announced the launch of the first-ever National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) of Sri Lanka on March 4, 2021.

Symbolizing the launch Governor of the Central Bank Deshamanya Professor W D Lakshman presented the NFIS strategy to Minister of Finance and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday,

The development of the NFIS was a multi-stakeholder effort led by the Central Bank which encompassed the expertise of various public and private sector institutions across the economy.

The technical and financial assistance for the NFIS development project was provided by the International finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group under the “IFC-DFAT Women in Work Project”, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Australian Government.

With an aspiring vision of “Better Quality Inclusion for Better Lives”, the NFIS strives towards a financially inclusive Sri Lanka where all individuals and enterprises in Sri Lanka are well-informed and have fair, and equitable access to a range of high-quality, appropriate, secure, and affordable financial products and services that they can use to contribute to economic growth and improve their living standards.

The NFIS is strategically designed to align all isolated efforts of financial inclusion taken by various entities in the economy into a single direction, having noted the potential higher yield of these efforts.

As a part of the NFIS, a time-bound Action Plan which sets up delegated actions for each stakeholder has been introduced. The monitoring and evaluation of the NFIS Action Plan and providing appropriate policy guidance will be carried out by the national level Management Entities of the NFIS and the Regional Development Department of the Central Bank with the support of the NFIS Secretariat.

With the launch of the NFIS, Sri Lanka joins more than 60 countries around the world who have taken similar initiatives to improve financial inclusion landscapes to reach sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

Ajith Nivard Cabral, State Minister of Money & Capital Market and State Enterprise Reforms, David Holly, Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Maldives, and Ms. Amena Arif, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Country Head for Sri Lanka and Maldives were also present at the launch.

The NFIS is available for general public at the Central Bank Official Website www.cbsl.gov.lk.