banking with the system of their choice and preference. this approach has proved to be a huge success in promoting islamic banking in the country and ensuring its demand driven development. the industry has been growing at an impressive annual growth rate of over 30 percent over the last five years with sustained growth momentum despite significantly increased base. islamic banking is currently spread across 80 districts of the country with a network of 1200 branches offering shariah compliant products and services. islamic banking assets presently constitute almost 10 percent of the overall banking system in the country while in terms of deposits the share is above 10 percent. the future outlook of the industry is also very positive with bright prospects of doubling its market share by 2020. the presence of his excellency, the president of pakistan, and the honorable finance minister in the conference speaks volumes about the strong commitment of the government for the promotion of islamic banking and finance in the country. i would like to take this opportunity to highlight that state bank of pakistan has been playing a leading role in bis central bankers ’ speeches nurturing islamic banking in the country on sound footings. being the regulator of the banking sector, sbp over the years has introduced and implemented key regulatory reforms and prudential measures to ensure financial stability and to meet the evolving needs of the industry. we have also given a comprehensive and multi - tiered shariah compliance framework to ensure shariah conformity of islamic banks ’ operations. to further strengthen the shariah compliance environment in islamic banks we have also developed a shariah governance framework, which explicitly defines the shariah related roles and responsibilities of all key organs of ibis including board of directors, the executive management and shariah boards. it also institutionalizes the shariah compliance function in ibis. moreover, to develop an effective prudential and risk management framework for islamic finance, an incremental approach was adopted wherein new regulations for only such areas and risks of islamic banks were developed which were not being covered by conventional prudential regulations and risk management framework. further, in order to align its regulatory framework with international regulatory standards and best practices, sbp regularly reviews and evaluates the standards issued by ifsb, aaoifi, and iifm for their possible implementation keeping in view our local legal, regulatory and economic environment. last year we issued landmark instructions for profit & loss distribution and pool management for islamic banking institutions ( ibis ), which were well received both locally and internationally. the instructions are aimed at bringing

. in addition, an impressive 80 % account opening rate of beneficiaries was witnessed under nflp. i congratulate all of you, who served in this cause and made this initiative a success by transforming it into industry owned initiative. ladies and gentlemen! our more recent major initiatives have focused on expand financial services to the unbanked and underbanked segments of the society. a. first, sbp is moving in a more targeted manner to devise policies to better integrate the female population with the formal financial system. sustained economic growth is not possible if half of the population is systematically excluded from the workforce. to plug this historical gap in the financial services industry, sbp has introduced the banking on equality policy. it supplements our national financial inclusion strategy and other initiatives to provide better access to financial services to women in our country ; b. second, sbp is spearheading multiple initiatives, in partnership with banks, to provide an equitable and easy access to drive usage of a range of financial services. they include raast, asaan digital account, asaan mobile account and more recently digital banks. c. finally, sbp has introduced specialized schemes to enhance access to finance. these schemes include the sme asaan finance or saaf scheme, refinance and credit guarantee scheme for women entrepreneurs, line of credit for msmes, and prime minister's youth business and agriculture loan scheme. i am happy to share that these initiatives have made an impact on advancing financial inclusion in pakistan. as of june 2023, there were around 177 million bank accounts in pakistan. of these, 83 million are unique accounts, which is 60 % of the 137 million adult population. it is also important to note that the total number of accounts owned by women are 49 million, of which unique accounts are 29 million. these 29 million unique accounts represent more than 43 % of the female adult population. although the financial inclusion indicators have shown improvement over the past few years, significant efforts are still required to catch up with regional and peer economies. in our strategic plan for the next five years " sbp vision 2028 ", we aim to strengthen the financial inclusion framework through targeted policy initiatives with enhanced focus on digital means. ladies and gentlemen! true financial inclusion requires individuals to understand how to leverage these services to improve their lives. this is where financial literacy plays a pivotal role. by providing individuals with the necessary knowledge and skills to manage their finances wisely, we empower them to break