The Head, Financial Inclusion Secretariat at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Paul Oluikpe, has stated that the CBN is now focused on bringing everyone in the inclusive net.
He further said the segment of the financial services sector cannot fill the gaps in the inclusive net.
CBN and the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) urged investors in the formal financial sector to provide products for the informal sector, ensuring that Nigeria make 94 percent financial inclusion by 2024.
Oluikpe, said savings in any economic configuration is a key driver of economic growth and is a key function of the apex bank’s economic equation for national productivity.
Citing a 2019 report, Oluikpe explained that the challenges of bringing women on-board in the formal financial sector include lack of trust, education and income to interact with formal financial services.
“We must also know that formal financial services players are really not having the products that will be able to reach these guys (low income) at the very grassroot because the products are not convenient for these people and so there is need for fundamental change to bring them on board,” he said.
Oluikpe further noted that the current slow pace of growth of the economy is down to the actions coming from the fiscal sector and added that Nigeria is not earning enough oil income to sustain its fiscal shortcomings.
“If you are doing some stuff on the monetary side and then there are counteractions on the fiscal side, then what are we going to do? The fiscal side is much bigger than where we are playing and so there are many counteractions coming from the fiscal side. But we should continue to save regardless of how much inflation is because the mainstay of every household is disposable income.”
