By Chibisi Ohakah
Abuja
Managing director of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), AlhajiUmaru Ibrahim, has said that as a first step, all institutions involved in financial inclusion in Nigeria must create demand and contribute to a well-articulated financial literacy agenda.
The NDIC boss who spoke while flagging off a one day financial inclusion sensitisation seminar organised for the Coalition of Civil Organisations in Abuja last Friday, said financial aims at building peoples capability to use the financial products and services.
He said whereas the first stage of literacy is to create demand, “this entails devising appropriate products and services, pricing them reasonably, understanding the risk, communicating it to customers and protecting the customers.”
Alhaji Ibrahim stated that financial inclusion and financial literacy are paired to each other. He pointed out that availability and access to financial products are important, “but it is the knowledge of the products, i.e. financial literacy that creates demand for these products/services.”
Defining financial literacy as the possession of knowledge and skills by individuals to manage financial resources effectively to enhance their economic well-being, Ibrahim opined that financial inclusion is therefore achieved when adults have easy access to a broad range of formal financial services that meet their needs and are provided at affordable cost
He explained that under the Financial Inclusion Strategy (FIS), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has embarked on several policy initiatives, which include financial literacy, consumer protection, mobile banking, agent banking, the proposed Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF), and advocacy for liberalization of insurance sector and development of micro insurance.
“The NDIC on its part, being fully aware of its importance as a safety-net and all the attendant roles attached to its mandate, has set in motion mechanisms to ensure a synergistic result in the achievement of Nigeria’s financial inclusion foals,” he said
The apex deposit insurance corporation carried out a financial literacy inclusion study in 2012, to assess the perceived knowledge – and confidence in such confidence – of Nigerians with respect to financial literacy with a view of making appropriate recommendations that will facilitate a more informed role play.
Alhaji Ibrahim said in its current effort, the NDIC has fine-tuned it approach. According to him, the NDIC has instituted efficient internal processes to enable it discharge all deposit roles at all times, thereby ensuring financial system stability.
NDIC is also creating awareness and educating the public on access to financial services, availability of various types of products and their features. “We are contributing to changing consumer attitudes thereby translating knowledge into behaviour. NDIC also make consumers understand their rights and responsibilities as clients of financial services, and provide easy means of complaints and empathetic redress to depositor complaints,” he explained.
