Bangladeshi Teen student are a bit Bank lover as a Bangladesh Bank annual report suggests. The report says by the end of December 2014, there were 8,50,303 accounts in banks opened by school students. School students in rural areas have opened 3,24,201 accounts while those in urban areas have opened 5,76,002 accounts. Tk 7.17 billion have been deposited in these accounts.
School boys and girls have opened 800,000 bank accounts in the last four years and deposited Tk 7.17 billion in them.
The school banking programme started off modestly with only 29,080 bank accounts in 2011. In the next 30 months, the number of bank accounts held by school students rose to 1,50,000.
Up to December 2012, there were only 1,32,537 bank accounts held by school students across Bangladesh with Tk 0.96 billion deposited in them. A year later, in December 2013, the number of school banking accounts had risen to 2,95,803 and just over Tk 3 billion deposited in them.
Bangladesh Bank issued a circular to all commercial banks in 2010 to join the `school banking` programme to attract deposits from school students.
Students could open a bank account with only Tk 10.
Now that has been raised to Tk 100.
Bangladesh Bank officials say this programme has ensured financial inclusiveness