Government consultant: The number of bank accounts in Iraq has increased to more than 14 million, 1 DEC

 Government consultant: The number of bank accounts in Iraq has increased to more than 14 million

Economy News – Baghdad

The Prime Minister’s Advisor for Financial and Economic Affairs, Mazhar Mohammed Saleh, on Saturday, confirmed the rise in financial inclusion in Iraq, represented by bank accounts, to 14 million and a rate of 20 million users, while pointing out that Iraq is witnessing a boom by adopting e-governance as a basis for integrity and financial efficiency.

Saleh said, in a statement reported by the official news agency, and seen by “Economy News”, that “the basis of financial inclusion is the number of bank personal accounts, as inclusion aims to enable individuals and companies to access financial services appropriate to their needs in an easy and affordable way, while ensuring legal protection and transparency.”

He added that “financial inclusion focuses on promoting the financial inclusion of economically and socially marginalized groups, such as the poor, women and youth, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises that lack adequate access to financing in the banking system through the opening of a bank account.”

He pointed out that “national indicators confirm that financial inclusion in Iraq has increased from 20% to 48% at present compared to previous years,” explaining that “the reason is due to two main factors, namely the settlement of the salaries of employees, workers, retirees and social welfare, and the other is the spread of digital payments or digital financial inclusion. ”

Saleh stressed that “Iraq is witnessing a boom within the policy of the government program, which has enounted e-governance the basis of integrity, transparency, financial and economic efficiency and optimal investment of resources and time,” pointing out that “recent statistics indicate that the number of bank accounts is about 14 million bank accounts and more than 20 million payment card users, which means a high financial inclusion rate from 20% to 48%, which is measured by the number of bank accounts opened for adults of the population.”

He continued, “There are a number of inactive or zero open bank accounts that should be excluded to reach the correct number of the number of open bank accounts. There are open and yellowed accounts belonging to expatriates and deceased, bankrupt companies or leaving companies and individuals who have not benefited with their bank accounts opened in banks while they are under guardianship or distressed and many other factors and hope.”

He continued, “The real standard in adopting the bank account as a criterion for financial inclusion is the bank accounts open to effective people, not zero or inactive, which requires their exclusion from the statistics of banks and the general Iraqi banking system.”

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