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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.
By Prince Okafor
Efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to drive financial inclusion across the nation is yielding result, as over 50 percent of Nigerian adults are using formal (regulated) financial services.
This was disclosed during Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, EFInA’s, Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Survey launch, yesterday.
Vanguard gathered that this is the first time, more than half of Nigerian adults are using formal (regulated) financial services,
The survey shows that, while more Nigerian adults are financially included, National Financial Inclusion Strategy targets were not met.
The survey also indicated that growth in digital financial services and agent banking highlights opportunities to drive faster progress toward financial inclusion, particularly for excluded groups such as women, rural and Northern Nigerians.
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Nigeria has come a long way in its financial inclusion pursuit. From 2012 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) initiated the Nigerian Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) till almost 10 years later, a lot has happened. One of the advancements is a service which enables customers to withdraw cash via mobile money agents from their bank accounts without the use of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or card. This cardless cash withdrawal service utilises a secure gateway that protects customers against fraudulent transactions and requires validation using their bank PIN.
But how important is this? While there has been progress with financial inclusion in Nigeria, data from Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) revealed that as at 2018 only 59.1 per cent of women compared with 67.5 per cent of men were financially included representing a gender gap of 8.4 per cent.
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How innovation is pushing Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive [Opinion]
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By Victor Ilo
NIGERIA has come a long way in its financial inclusion pursuit. From 2012 when the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, initiated the Nigerian Financial Inclusion Strategy, NFIS, till almost 10 years later, a lot has happened.
One of the advancements is a service which enables customers to withdraw cash via mobile money agents from their bank accounts without the use of an Automated Teller Machine, ATM, or card. This cardless cash withdrawal service utilises a secure gateway that protects customers against fraudulent transactions and requires validation using their bank PIN.
1. Background and Context:
Women’s Financial Inclusion is critical to supporting economic growth especially as economies struggle to recover from the global economic crisis brought about the Corona Virus Pandemic.
The journey towards achieving gender parity in financial inclusion in Nigeria commenced with the revision of the National Financial Inclusion in Nigeria in 2018 which identified 5 key focus groups to target interventions and policies in order to achieve the financial inclusion goal including; Women, Youth, MSMEs, Rural areas and Northern indigenes.
In 2016, Nigeria, along with other member countries of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) committed to the Denarau Action Plan (DAP) which prescribes halving the global Financial Inclusion Gender Gap by 2021. The DAP outlines ten actions, one of which includes a specific commitment to consider and implement best practices in integrating policies for women’s financial inclusion and gender considerations within natio