Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has asked all banks to open accounts by depositing BDT 10 only for street children and child workers to strengthen ongoing financial inclusion programme in Bangladesh.
All street children who live and work in railway stations, bus and ferry terminals, slums and footpaths will be allowed to open the accounts, the central bank said in a circular, issued on Sunday.
After introducing various types of banking services for farmers, sharecroppers and some other underprivileged people, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has now extended its generous initiatives to bring street urchins and child workers under institutional financial support.
"The initiative has been taken for the street children to help develop saving habits among them, and to reduce the trend of their derailment from the right path by protecting their greater interest," the central bank explained.
The BB in its directive also gave a detail guideline on the procedures of opening and operating of the accounts for street children and child workers.
The central bank said all these accounts should be operated by the non- government organisations (NGOs), nominated by the central bank. The interested NGOs are advised to submit applications to the BB's Green Banking and CRS Department through scheduled banks.
The central bank will prepare a list of NGOs who can operate the accounts on-behalf of the street urchins and child workers. The NGOs concerned will nominate at least two of their staffs for doing these jobs. Among the two employees, one should be from the accounting department and the other from the field level.
However, the NGOs should take the overall responsibility of operating the accounts until the street children and the child workers reach the age of 18 years. The NGOs and the banks concerned will sign agreements to operate the accounts.
There will be no fees for these accounts, but the account holders will not get online transaction facility, meaning no debit or credit cards would be issued by the banks. Withdrawal should be done by using cheques or other physical debit instructions.
BBN/SSR/AD-09Mar14-9:48 pm (BST)