Women, rural dwellers and Northern citizens still excluded from financial inclusion ― CBN

The Deputy Governor and Chair of the Financial Inclusion Technical Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah Ahmad has said that women, rural dwellers and citizens in the northern area are still excluded from financial inclusion in the country despite progress achieved to date.

The Deputy Governor made this known during the launching of the EFInA (Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access) Nigeria 2020 Survey held via zoom on Thursday.

Aishah noted that the apex bank has been exerting efforts to drive financial inclusion in Nigeria by championing the development & implementation of Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy.

The Chairman said that CBN launched a Framework for Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria in 2020.

She added that the bank is seeing to the implementation of the framework that would lead to a significant increase in women’s financial inclusion in Nigeria.

“Despite the progress achieved to date, critical groups remained excluded including women, rural dwellers and citizens in the northern area.

“The CBN has accordingly been at the forefront of the efforts to drive financial inclusion in Nigeria by championing the development & implementation of Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy led by the CBN Governor.

“To address the issue with women, CBN launched a Framework for Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria in 2020 and is leading the industry to implement the framework, which we expect to lead to a significant increase in women financial inclusion in Nigeria.” She said.

Speaking also, The Chief Executive Officer, EFInA, Ashley Immanuel revealed that Nigeria will not reach its 2020 financial inclusion target until around 2030 despite the current rate of progress.

Ashley, however, stated that this target can be reached faster if Nigeria also takes the paths other African countries had taken.

Immanuel noted that the survey shows that Nigeria’s digital financial services significantly increased between 2018 and 2020, adding that it should create an open and level playing field for a wide range of providers, create the right environment for fintech to thrive, and encourage partnerships between different providers.

“At our current rate of progress, we will not reach the 2020 financial inclusion targets until around 2030.

“However, we can reach these targets much faster if we follow paths taken by other African countries that have seen rapid financial inclusion growth due to mobile money.

“EFInA’s Access to Financial Services in Nigeria Surveys show that the use of digital financial services and agent networks started to grow significantly between 2018 and 2020.

“Phone ownership has also increased, with 81% of Nigerians now owning mobile phones.

“Now is the time to build on this initial progress and drive faster financial inclusion growth through digital financial services such as mobile money.

“We can do this by creating an open and level playing field for a wide range of providers, creating the right environment for fintech to thrive, and encouraging partnerships between different providers,” Immanuel said.

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