56m Nigerians embrace financial inclusion, says CBN

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 56m Nigerians embrace financial inclusion, says CBN
By Our Reporter  on October 21, 2015   Business
From   Isaac Anumihe and Blaise Udunze,  Ilorin
The renewed campaign on financial inclusion in the country  may have yielded positive results as the current rate of  adoption has moved up by 6.8 per cent to 60.5 per cent,  representing 56 miliion Nigerians.
 This means most adults   are now into one form of financial services  or another, with about 36.9 million others,  representing 39.5 per cent being the current exclusion  rate.
 The Head of Financial Inclusion Secretariat of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs. Temitope Akin-Fadeyi, said the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, linked to payments system, savings, loans, insurance and pensions schemes, targeted the channels-Automated Teller Machines, micro finance banks, Point of Sales and mobile  money agents-through which these were delivered to customers in banks’ branches,
 Mrs Akin-Fadeyi, while delivering her paper titled: e-Banking and Financial Inclusion, at the ongoing workshop for Business Editors and Finance Correspondents organized by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, (NDIC),however, noted that to sustain the current results, financial institutions must be ever more creative.
 She said that the strategies which the bank has adopted to achieve this includes payment, savings, loans, insurance and pension.  “The strategy also includes targets for channels through which these products and services will be delivered to consuners; bank branches, ATMs(Automated Teller
 Machines), microfinance bank branches, POS (point of sales) and mobile money agents” she said.
 According  to her, CBN has developed some guidelines  and frameworks to provide an enabling environment to eliminate cumbersome account opening requirements for bottom of the barrel customers.
 These include the developmental and implementation of  regulatory framework for agent booking, development and implementation of a national financial literacy framework,  implantation of a comprehensive consumer protection framework to safeguard the interest of clients and sustain  confidence in the financial sector, continued pursuance of mobile payment system and other cashless policies to reduce cost of financial services and increase ease of transaction and credit enhancement schemes to improve access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises.
 In this connection, Akin-Fadeyi, disclosed that an estimated  $900 million would be saved by 2020 following the reduced leakage of funds, better access to financial services and lower transaction cost.
 In his remarks, Editor, South, Blueprint Newspapers, Mr Jerry Uwa said that in the first quarter of 2014 only 59 million out of the nation’s estimated 88 million adults had no access to banking services.
“The yawning gap between mobile phone penetration and access to banking services is a source of concern to the regulators of the nation’s financial system, because the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has broken the backbones of fertilizer subsidy scammers with the so-called electronic wallet, the equivalent of mobile money. We can leverage on the gains of e-banking to enhance financial inclusion,” he said.