Pakistan has made leaps and bounds in financial inclusion, but our women continue to be left behind

Anyone that has ever suffered the indignity of walking into a bank in Pakistan to pay a utility bill will appreciate just how far digital financial services have come in Pakistan. The experience of walking into a bank branch, getting a token, finding out you are 20 people away from getting to a counter and then trying to find a spot on the painful steel chairs with no padding was up until a decade ago a universal experience. 

Some banks failed at even providing the comfort of a roof, choosing instead to open a small window where people could cue up outdoors and pay their bills. In recent times, the queues have been replaced by the convenience of mobile money that has fundamentally transformed how Pakistan manages its finances. Consider how dramatically your own financial behavior has shifted: most transactions now happen digitally, and visits to bank branches have declined dramatically. 

This transformation is so complete that certain service providers have transcended their brand identity to become synonymous with entire categories; the ubiquitous "Easypaisa kardein" or "JazzCash kardein" phrases now serve as shorthand for digital payments across the country.

Yet beneath this remarkable progress lies a troubling paradox. While policymakers celebrate Pakistan's digital financial revolution, a substantial portion of the population remains excluded from both traditional and innovative financial services. By and large, this failure at financial inclusion disproportionately affects women. 

This exclusion raises a critical question: is this disparity an unintended consequence of rapid digitization, or does it reflect deeper structural inequalities that the financial inclusion agenda is yet to address?