A report by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), a financial sector development organisation that promotes financial inclusion in Nigeria, says 38 million citizens, representing 36 per cent of the adult population, remain completely financially excluded.
Data released by the organisation shows that only 64 per cent of Nigerian adults were financially included by the end of 2020 and of the figure, 51 per cent of Nigerian adults have access to formal financial services in 2020.
The services include those offered in banking, microfinance bank institutions, mobile money, insurance, or pension accounts. The figure was up from 49 per cent in 2018.
Recall that in its 2012 National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had projected that 80 per cent of Nigerians would have access to financial services by December 2020.
At the launch of the report titled, “Access to financial services in Nigeria survey,” EFInA said financial inclusion was driven by 45 per cent growth in the banking population in 2020, up from 40 per cent in 2018.
The report stated that women continue to be more financially excluded, with only 45 per cent of them using formal financial services than men with 56 percent.
Deputy governor, financial systems stability (FSS) at the CBN, Aishah Ahmad, said that the bank is driving financial inclusion in Nigeria by championing the development and implementation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy led by the apex bank governor Godwin Emefiele.
EFInA CEO, Ashley Immanuel, expressed fears that at the current rate of progress, the country may not reach the 2020 financial inclusion targets until around 2030.
He, however, said the targets can be reached much faster if the paths taken by other African countries that have seen rapid financial inclusion growth due to mobile money are followed.
The report added that growth in digital financial services and agent banking will drive faster progress toward financial inclusion, particularly for excluded groups such as women, rural and Northern Nigerians.
