CBN Moves to Achieve 80% Financial Inclusion Target

• CBN Moves to Achieve 80% Financial Inclusion Target

National Financial inclusion stakeholders in Nigeria, led by the Central Bank of Nigeria, plan to converge for the launch of key policy documents aimed at facilitating the attainment of the financial inclusion target of 80 per cent by 2020.

In a statement from the CBN on Monday, the policy documents to be unveiled at a conference in Abuja this week, which was expected to attract over 400 delegates, were the Revised National Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Financial Literacy Framework, the Consumer Protection Framework and the Consumer Education framework.

The CBN stated that the conference aimed to ensure the adequate protection and education of new comers into the financial inclusion bracket with the provisions of the policy documents.

It stated that other objectives of the two-day conference to be declared open by the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, were to update participants on the growing sophistication of the financial market, the competitive environment where financial services providers operated and the benefit and value of providing access to financial services, among others.

“While hoping to enhance consumer confidence and trust in the financial services to facilitate progress towards achieving 80 per cent financial inclusion target by 2020, the CBN and other stakeholders also seek to obtain customer feedback on how best to implement the financial inclusion policies,” it stated.

According to the CBN, latest figures released by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access indicate that 36.6 million Nigerian adults, representing about 36.8 per cent of the Nigerian adult population, do not have access to formal financial services.

“To achieve its financial inclusion target, Nigeria, through the National Financial Inclusion stakeholders, seek to cut the exclusion rate down to 20 per cent by the year 2020, hence various public and private organisations under the auspices of National Financial inclusion stakeholders have been working assiduously since the launch of the first National Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2012 to achieve the objective of 80 per cent inclusion by 2020,” it added.