The Chief Executive Officer, Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, Ashley Immanuel, has said that Nigeria will not meet its National Financial Inclusion Strategy target till around 2030.
Nigeria had fixed 2020 to give 70 per cent of its adults access to a broad range of formal, affordable financial services that meet their needs. The strategy set overall targets and specific targets for products, channels and enablers.
A webinar organised by EFInA on Thursday, revealed that the country failed to meet the target because the Coronavirus Disease crises last year negatively affected 86 million adults.
However, a new report entitled ‘EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Survey’ noted that the growth marginally increased from 63.2 per cent to 64.1 per cent in the period under review.
Findings showed that 58.4 per cent of Nigeria’s 96.4 million adults were financially included in 2016, comprising 38.3 per cent banked, 10.3 per cent served by other formal institutions and 9.8 per cent served by informal service providers.
The 2020 target was to capture 70 per cent of its adult population in the formal financial services sector and 10 per cent in the informal sector.
Immanuel observed that amid the challenging economic circumstance, financial inclusion continued to grow exponentially, with more than half of Nigerian adults using formal (regulated) financial services for the first time.
She, however, submitted that the country could achieve the goals much faster, if it toed the path of other African nations, especially their mobile money strategies.
The financial expert observed that this could be done by creating a level-playing field for a wide range of providers and fintechs to thrive besides encouraging partnerships among the providers.
The EFInA boss charged government to build on initial progress and drive faster financial inclusion growth through digital financial services like mobile money, as surveys showed that use of digital financial services and agent networks started growing significantly between 2018 and 2020.
Defining financial inclusion as a strong lever for bridging income inequality, combating poverty and preserving social harmony, the Deputy Governor, Financial Systems Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah Ahmad, remarked that the apex bank had been at the forefront of efforts to drive the initiative in the country through development and implementation of national financial inclusion strategy.
Ahmad, who is also chairperson of the Financial Inclusion Technical Committee, regretted that despite the humble progress, critical groups, women, especially rural dwellers and northern citizens, remained excluded.
Also, the Economic Development Team Leader, Nigeria for United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Ms Gail Warrander, whose organisation funded the study, noted that the moderate achievement notwithstanding, more still needed to be done.
The Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said last year’s financial inclusion growth came with mixed results due to the pandemic.
Suleiman, who was among the panelists, advised that the demographics excluded from the marginal growth should be looked into, adding that the objective of financial inclusion, must be religiously pursued.
