The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has called for adequate education to attain the required financial inclusion in the country.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, made the call at the Vanguard Conference in Lagos last week.
Danbatta, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Research and Development Department, NCC, Mr Okoh Aihe, said that the issue of low education and literacy was a big challenge across formal and financial sectors, hence the rationale for high rate of exclusion within the youth and women in certain regions
The NCC boss urged Fintech (Financial Technology) institutions to bridge the gap between gender, formality, age, urban and rural discrepancies.
“There is no gainsaying that Fintech can improve access to finance for all types of consumers whether they are first time bank account owners or learning to save or transact digital business.
“However, there is need to address the challenge of financial literacy from the perspective of provision of new products and services that are designed for different cadres of literacy.
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“Failure to tackle these challenges will continue to fuel resistance to the use of Fintech services by the existing excluded persons,” he said.
Danbatta noted that addressing contending issues arising from blockchain technologies (a technology that enables transaction without any trusted party) still grappled with technical hurdles and policy challenges.
“The blockchain operates independently of Central Bank and other financial institutions.
“However, the technology has challenges in the enforcement of laws in the absence of any intermediary and to whom to impute the legal liability for breaches caused by blockchain-based system,” he said.
In his recommendation, Danbatta said that open market trade and investment regimes would create new avenues for rapidly upgrading technologies, skills and increase specialisation.
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