The federal government has revealed it targets 95 per cent financial inclusion by 2024 as envisioned in the revised financial inclusion strategy document.
This was disclosed by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday in Abuja at the 2022 International Financial Inclusion Conference.
Mr. Emefiele urged all stakeholders and development partners to support the initiative as the CBN has already embarked on a number of measures towards achieving the set goals.
“I also want to task all stakeholders of financial inclusion in Nigeria to join hands together, work in collaboration and drive implementation to ensure that we achieve 95% financial inclusion as outlined in the new National Financial Inclusion Strategy”, Emefiele said.
He pointed out that as at 2008, 52.2 percent of Nigerian adults were financially excluded, which implied that one out of every two adults had no access to financial services.
In her remarks, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Financial System Stability Aisha Ahmad, said the significant highlight of the revised financial inclusion strategy is the need to achieve 95 percent target by 2024.
She explained that the target was set to demonstrate and communicate to everyone that the nation is very committed to making this happen.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mohammed Musa Bello, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the event said the administration understands the impact of Financial Inclusion on economic growth and development and as such, has provided the enabling policy environment for financial inclusion initiatives to yield the expected results.
“For instance, in 2019, I launched the Micro Pension policy which was aimed at deepening pension penetration amongst MSMEs and the informal economy. We also initiated policies for Micro-Insurance and Collective Investment. These initiatives are geared toward providing access to a wide range of financial products and services to the underserved in line with our National Financial Inclusion objective”, President Buhari said.
Her Majesty, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands who is also the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate on Inclusive Finance for Development joined the event virtually.
Queen Maxima urged all the stakeholders to encourage a coordinated approach in tackling financial inclusion, by working together with the CBN and the Federal Government.
