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70 percent of Cambodians have access to financial services
About 70 percent of Cambodians have access to financial services, with more than 8.6 million e-wallet account holders at the end 2021, according to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC).
“Cambodians have access to official financial services when people receive one of our four financial services, including credit, deposits, money transfers and digital payments,” said Chea Serey, Assistant Governor and Director General of Central Banking, NBC.
Launching the “Access to Finance” Programme on Friday, she said that the share of payment services has increased significantly and has evolved to digital payments to meet customers’ requirements, especially the small and medium enterprises.
“Indeed, in the context of the spread of Covid 19, payment services have increased significantly with the shift from cash to digital payments. There are 8.6 million customers and more than 40,000 agents by the end of 2021,” Serey pointed out.
“Access to Finance is one of the prioritised agendas in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2019-2025,” said Raymond Sia, Chairman of the Association of Banks in Cambodia.
“The role of the financial sector has been recognised in facilitating the economic growth thanks to the enhancement in the access to financial services, which can be observed with the provision of affordable and appropriate financial instruments with reasonable interest rates to those who do not have adequate financing, and to unbanked households and above all to SMEs, and women entrepreneurs. Doing so will strengthen the resilience of the financial sector, and improve the effectiveness of macroeconomic policy in terms of financial inclusiveness,” he added.
“The Covid-19 has adversely affected the social and economic growth in the past two years. It has affected the SMEs or businesses and the banking system, mainly banks’ assets, revenue, and growth. Nevertheless, our member banks have been continuously supporting SMEs and participating in the government’s co-financing schemes.
“Under the leadership of the NBC, banks and financial institutions have taken proactive measures to ensure enough liquidity to support consumers and other sectors — especially with loan restructurings. As of February 2022, the active loan restructurings for all banking and financial sectors stand at more than $4.8 billion, or around 11 percent of the total credit in the industry. There still are remaining challenges to solve between banks and financial institutions and SMEs,” he pointed out.
The association hopes that such sharing will help solve pending items and create a better acquaintance between business partners, not limited to Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Women-owned businesses and young entrepreneurs.
According to the Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises Associations in Cambodia (Fasmec), more than 530,000 small and medium enterprises are in Cambodia.
Sok Voeun, Chairman of the Cambodia Microfinance Association, said that there was remarkable growth in SMEs in Cambodia. Moreover, SMEs play an essential role in building economic resilience, creating local jobs, contributing to poverty reduction and boosting national economic growth.
He said that financial institutions have been closely involved in providing financing services to SMEs to establish and support businesses. However, some SMEs still face challenges in obtaining credit for their businesses.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501052053/70-percent-of-cambodians-have-access-to-financial-services/