The Nigerian Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has said that the federal government is committed to bringing over 30 million unbanked Nigerians into the formal financial system.
According to a statement issued on Thursday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, the VP stated this during a high-level policy dialogue between the Nigerian government and private sector stakeholders held in Washington DC, the United States capital.
In line with the commitment, the VP said there is an urgent need for financial innovation to drive Nigeria’s economic and financial inclusion agenda.
The initiative, which brought together government officials, regulators, law enforcement agencies, and fintech industry leaders at the George Washington University, aims to leverage innovative approaches to drive a sustainable and inclusive financial system in Nigeria.
Addressing the gathering via video conference, Vice President Shettima emphasized the need for collaboration between all stakeholders to achieve financial inclusion in Nigeria.
“We must develop a sustainable collaboration approach that will facilitate the adoption of inclusive payment to achieve our objective of economic and financial inclusion,” he stated.
The dialogue focused on addressing critical challenges in Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem, including regulatory oversight, security concerns, and trust issues that have hindered the widespread adoption of innovative financial solutions.
Earlier, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Sen. Ibrahim Hadejia, said,
“While the Office of the Vice President has given priority to economic and financial inclusion, it is expected that each agency of government will continue to play their statutory role collaboratively to achieve the set objective.”
Also, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of Financial System Stability, Philip Ikeazor, noted the need for ongoing collaboration among all players to achieve the objectives of the Aso Accord on Economic and Financial Inclusion.
According to the statement, the Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, proposed “a Digital-first approach and the need to fuse Digital Literacy with Financial literacy as a means to address trust issues affecting the inclusive payment ecosystem.”
The GMD of Moniepoint, Tosin Eniolorunda, was also quoted saying,
“Addressing trust issues that have slowed down the adoption of innovative Fintech solutions for economic and financial inclusion can be addressed through public-private collaborations.”
In his remarks, the Technical Advisor to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Dr. Nurudeen Zauro, explained that the gathering would eventually evolve into a mechanism that would provide relevant information to the Office of the Vice President to facilitate effective decision-making for economic and financial inclusion.
A 2023 ‘Access to Finance’ survey conducted by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), a financial sector deepening (FSD) organisation, revealed that financial inclusion in Nigeria increased to 74% in 2023, up from 68% in 2020.
EFInA said the increase in access to finance reduces the financial exclusion rate to 26%, slightly above the 25% target the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hope to achieve in 2024.
EFInA, however, noted that more work needed to be done to achieve the 95% long-term inclusion set by CBN in the Nigeria Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 3.0.