May 2026
08May

Socio-economic Status of Informal Sector Business Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

By Dr. Nazrul Islam Informal sector business is a highly growing sector of Bangladesh which is defined as the businesses that are neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government or authority . A large number of small and medium enterprises (SME) fall into this category of the informal sector of businesses. The major driving forces behind the growth of informal sector businesses in Bangladesh are the rise in household demands fir goods and services manufactured and supplied by...

May 8, 2026
Articles, Labor Market, , ,
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April 2025
16Apr

Awareness of the Government-Introduced Universal Pension Scheme Among the Adult Population in Bangladesh: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey

By Sharmin Rima, Md. Mahir Faysal, Abdullah Al Mamun, Khadija Akter Sonia, Hossna Tasmia Monia, Anika Tahseen Nuva, Ahbab Mohammad Fazle Rabbi, Abdullah-Al-Mamun & Mohammad Hossain The Universal Pension Scheme (UPS) was introduced in Bangladesh in August 2023 to address economic security concerns for its growing older adults. Despite the government's numerous promotional efforts, the response rate to UPS remains modest. This study aimed to investigate awareness of the UPS among the Bangladeshi population. The study's sample size was 1624,...

April 16, 2025
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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February 2025
18Feb

Bangladesh. Informal economy under stress

In the bustling lanes of Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, Rina Begum, a 42-year-old street vendor, arranges fresh vegetables on her wooden cart before sunrise. Her business-unregistered, untaxed, and absent from official GDP reports-is part of Bangladesh's informal economy, a vast network of small-scale, unregulated ventures that employ millions. Globally, the informal sector accounts for over 60 per cent of employment; in Bangladesh, it sustains 85 per cent of the workforce, from rickshaw pullers to home-based garment workers. Yet, as inflation...

February 18, 2025
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September 2024
20Sep

Optimising Bangladesh’s Universal Pension Framework: From Lessons to Actions

By Samiha Chowdhury Social protection for the elderly, in the form of the Old-age Allowance (OAA) Programme, has been operational in Bangladesh since 1998, offering monthly financial support to senior citizens from poor and vulnerable households. As of FY24, the programme has approximately 5.8 million elderly people as beneficiaries, each receiving Tk.600 per month distributed on a quarterly basis. Apart from this, retirement benefits for the government employees and their families can also be considered a social protection programme for...

September 20, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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May 2023
29May

Bangladesh. Govt to pilot universal pension from July

The government is set to launch a pilot programme for a universal pension system this July with separate products for expatriates, private sector employees, those engaged in the informal sector, and individuals covered by the social safety net. The initiative is aimed at bringing people from all walks of life under pension coverage in a gradual process. But no specific authority has yet been established to oversee the universal pension system and the pension products have not yet been specified...

May 29, 2023
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May 2022
24May

Bangladesh. Is a Universal Pension Scheme viable?

The role of an inclusive pension system in any society is increasingly important to ensure that future retirees will have sufficient funding to retain their standard of living at the end of their working life. However, the newly proposed Universal Pension Scheme (UPS) in Bangladesh, result of Awami League's 2018 election manifesto, is simplistic and grossly discriminatory. The scheme does not consider Bangladesh's unique financial and socio-economic context and will create further strain on the government's fiscal management. Even...

May 24, 2022
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November 2021
17Nov

Bangladesh. Guardian Life launches “Ajibon Pension Plan” – A Complete Retirement Solution

Believing in "Insurance for All", Guardian Life has been at the forefront of innovation in terms of products, services and business models to minimize financial risks of customers. As Guardian Life believes in customer-first policy, the company has always been committed in meeting the diverse needs of the customers. To cover more people under the shade of Guardian Life, a new product- "Ajibon Pension" plan has been launched which is a first of its kind in Bangladesh, states a press...

November 17, 2021
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January 2021

14Jan

How Poor Bangladeshi Households Behave Regarding Access to Commitment Savings Products

By Carolina Laureti, Mélanie Volral Access to commitment savings products is known to increase poor households’ savings. In this paper we analyze the process through which households change their savings behavior, by exploiting a unique dataset released by SafeSave, a Bangladeshi microfinance institution that launched the Long Term Savings commitment product in 2009. First, we find that households increase their savings a few months before they open the commitment product. Then, distinguishing early takers (who take up the commitment...

January 14, 2021
Articles, Savings, ,
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June 2020

15Jun

IBM Trials Blockchain Platform For Primary Teachers ’ Pensions in Bangladesh

IBM has started an initiative to create a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based framework that will form the back bone of digital pension program for Bangladeshi primary school teachers. The PoC (Proof-of-Concept) consists of a permissioned network of teachers and other partakers backed by the IBM Blockchain Platform, with pension data loaded on the blockchain to guarantee unalterable data keeping and offer safety guarantees to teachers partaking in GBB (Grameen Bank of Bangladesh) government supervising IT policy in the...

June 15, 2020
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June 2019

13Jun

Can Bangladesh develop a national pension system?

A future for Bangladesh’s senior citizens Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and the eighth-largest by population. The number of people over 60 years of age has been projected to increase from about 9.8 million (6.5% of total population) to 18.1 million (10% of total population) by 2026 and 44.1 million people (20.2% of total population) by 2051 in Bangladesh. The average life expectancy of a Bangladeshi is now...

June 13, 2019
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