Abstract

This study examines to what extent the financial inclusion is achieved especially for PWDs, in Pakistan. This study calculates the financial inclusion score on a sample of 58 PWDs respondents from two target locations, Charsadda and Islamabad, who fall into various categories. The Indexing strategy’s estimation is based two stages. The first stage is an estimation of principal component analysis derived for the indexes, and three dimensions’ sub-indices. The financial inclusion index classified into three dimensions: Use of financial services, Barriers in availing services and Access. The second stage constructing the normalization of each dimension’s values. Data collected from PWDs through pre-developed questionnaire from two locales, the secondary sources, such as World Bank and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, used to obtain data such as Disability Statistics. Only 15% of respondents are financially included, and the rest 85% are not, according to the estimated financial inclusion score, which is based on Usage, Barriers, and Accessibility data from the questionnaire. However, the majority of respondents were using the State Bank of Pakistan’s services for people with disabilities, but they were not fully utilising them because of Usage Barriers and accessibility issues, such as affordability, the documentation process, issues with trust, infrastructure problems, etc. The importance of Financial Inclusion to the economy is highlighted by this study. From there, a Financial Inclusion solution built into and its effects on other factors examined. This study will make it easier for policymakers to implement effective steps to raise Financial Inclusion levels for PWDs and to the exclusion to make them benefactors instead of beneficiaries.