CBN reviews National Financial Inclusion Strategy

Fri, Jan 11, 2019 | By publisher


Business Briefs

Nigeria plans to have 70 percent of its adult population in the formal financial services sector and 10 percent included in the informal sector by 2020

 

 

THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has finalised the review of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy to achieve its 2020 set target. In the review, Nigeria plans to have 70 percent of its adult population in the formal financial services sector and 10 percent included in the informal sector by 2020.

The National Financial Inclusion Strategy (revised), stated that in line with the 2012 NFIS monitoring plan, a review was carried out from October 2017 to June 2018 based on research reports, data analysis and stakeholder engagements. The exercise aimed to understand the current state of financial inclusion in Nigeria, assess past approaches, and the lessons learnt in order to prioritise the most critical interventions to achieve the objectives.

Part of the review read, “In 2016, 58.4 per cent of Nigeria’s 96.4 million adults were financially included 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. In 2020, Nigeria plans to have 70 per cent of its adult population in the formal financial services sector and 10 per cent included in the informal sector.”

It stated that the strategy articulated the demand-side, supply-side and regulatory barriers to financial inclusion, identified areas of focus, set targets, determined key performance indicators and established the implementation structure. The key findings from the review included that Nigeria had made significant progress to implement the NFIS because stakeholders regarded financial inclusion as a national development tool.

Inter-departmental and inter-agency governance arrangements including Steering and Technical Committees, implementation structures in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory and National Working Groups, had been collaborating to achieve set targets, it added.

Stakeholder engagements, it added, revealed that some of the elements of the strategy such as point-of-sale terminals were no longer the appropriate or most efficient channel for distribution of financial services in view of the advances in technology. It also observed that regulations and policies such as fixed fees for certain transactions, limited the range and variation of business models that could be deployed.

– Jan. 11, 2019 @ 15:05 GMT |

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