This was disclosed in Nigeria’s oil capital city, Port Harcourt, where the Branch Controller of the CBN in the city, Mr Jude Ekwebelem made a presentation at a National Financial Inclusion workshop. “The ultimate goal of the financial inclusion strategy (FIS) is to reduce the percentage of adult Nigerians that are excluded from financial services from 46.3 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2020,” he said.
Also present at the workshop, designed to equip representatives of select organizations with information on how to access financial services, was the Head of the CBN National Financial Inclusion Secretariat, Mrs Temitope Akinfadeyi. She expressed her belief that
financial inclusion would be achieved when financial services were readily available and accessible at all parts of the country.
“Financial inclusion is a national strategy. It is something we are doing not just as CBN but it is for the whole of Nigeria. It is about improving the lives of our people. It is actually about empowering people through access to finance because when people have access to finance, they can take decisions to improve their lives. In the first stage we are focusing on five services; payments, savings, loans, insurance and pension. We believe that all Nigerians should have access to these services,” she said.
She revealed that the campaign would soon be taken to the local government levels as the CBN sought more stakeholders in the sector.
The CBN has been at the forefront of driving financial inclusion in Nigeria, launching multiple initiatives such as the Financial Inclusion Strategy (FIS), the Cashless Policy, and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF). Other initiatives such as the new Electronic Identity Cards (eIDs) championed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will grant Nigerians more access to financial services.
The results of this multi-stakeholder approach to boosting financial inclusion has been significant. Between 2008 and 2010, financial exclusion reduced from 53 percent in 2008 to 46.3 percent in 2010 thus spurring the CBN to set the lofty target of reducing this figure to 20 percent by 2020.
According to its website, the CBN will achieve this tall order by boosting the percentage of adult Nigerians with access to payment services to 70 percent, increasing those with access to savings to 60 percent, credit, insurance and pensions to 40 percent while ATMs should increase to 203.6 units per 100,000 adults, POSs to 850 units and mobile agents to 62 units; all by 2020.
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