64 Million Nigerians Excluded From Financial Services, Says CBN Gov

CENTRAL Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has disclosed that 64.8 million Nigerians representing 46.3 per cent of the adult population are excluded from financial and other banking services in the country.

Speaking at the apex bank’s flag-off the implementation of a pilot National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, Friday, Sanusi said the huge exclusion gap was occasioned by long distance access points, cumbersome eligibility requirements, low financial literacy, and high costs of financial services.

He noted that to achieve the CBN’s mandate and overall economic development of the North-East sub-region and the country, the barriers to financial services are to be overcome and removed.

“The four barriers to accessing financial services in the urban and rural centres underscored the need to develop and implement this National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS),” he stressed.

He said the primary aim or objectives of NFIS, was to reduce the financial exclusion rate of adults to 20 per cent by the year 2020.

On how to ensure that every adult Nigerian has access to financial services, Sanusi said, “the key initiatives in the Strategy include a tiered approach to KYC agent banking, a cash-less policy, a financial literary framework, consumer protection, and the implementation of credit enhancement schemes and programmes.”

He said specific targets have already been set for payment services, credit, income, pension, DMB and Microfinance Banks branches, ATMs, POS, banking agents, youths, and women.

He added: “A variety of stakeholders have been identified to support the full implementation of this strategy and their roles and responsibilities have been defined.”

The stakeholders, according to the CBN chief, would need to commit sufficiently to supporting the strategy and the CBN would need to take a lead in coordinating and promoting the strategy in order to achieve its goals and objectives.

In his remarks, Governor Kashim Shettima stated that in Borno State, a total of four million adults are being excluded from banking services. He, however, noted that insecurity to lives and property in the state is not unconnected to poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy.

He also assured the CBN governor that maximum security would be provided to all the base-stations of telecom firms, as they are core and basic infrastructures needed for providing financial services to the people.