School boys and girls have opened 1.46 million bank accounts in the last seven years and deposited Tk 14.41 billion in them.
A Bangladesh Bank report on school banking, which was introduced in 2011, has come up with the startling revelation.
In 2010, the then-Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman initiated the moved to make students familiar with banking services and technology, and to involve them in economic activities through savings.
However, the programme kicked off the next year modestly with only 29,080 accounts which have grown by almost 50 times in seven years.
Students could open a bank account with only Tk 10 then, which was later to Tk 100.
“Schoolgoers are now interested in banking, which has expanded the financial inclusion and the economy benefits from it,” former central bank chief Atiur Rahman told Bangla Tribune.
According to the Bangladesh Bank report, there were 1,461,860 accounts in banks opened by school students by the end of March this year.
A total of Tk 14.41 billion have been deposited in these accounts.
The latest figures say that the number of accounts opened by students in urban areas is higher by 58.59 percent than those rural areas.
Deposits made by urban schoolgoers were a whopping 200 percent higher than students in rural areas.
School students in rural areas have opened 565, 311 accounts with deposits of Tk 3.43 billion while in urban areas —deposits of Tk 10.98 billion in 896,549 accounts.
Children between 11 and 18 years old, which means from sixth to twelfth grade, can open joint accounts with their parents and guardian with an opening balance of Tk 100.
No charges or fees are applicable to these accounts as well as clients are not required to maintain a minimum balance.
Following the success, the central now wants to further spread it. The Bangladesh Bank has held ‘school banking conference’ in several educational institutions in the divisional cities.
In 2015, Bangladesh won an international award for the school banking scheme and other initiatives, including the financial inclusion of children.
Bangladesh Bank was given the ‘Child and Youth Finance International Country Award’ from Asia and the Pacific region by the Child and Youth Finance International (CYFI).
CYFI, a global network that includes 36 million children and youths across 125 countries, awards individuals, government authorities, financial institutions as well as civil society organisations.