The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) says maintaining macro-economic stability and enhanced mobile payment will help improve the nation’s financial inclusion.
Mr Rotimi Ogunleye, NDIC’s Assistant Director, Research, Policy and International Relations, made this known in Dutse, Jigawa. Ogunleye said that other ways to improve financial inclusion included growth in channels of payment through Authomated Teller Machines (ATM), Point of Sales (PoS) and agents.
According to him, there is the need to give priority to those elements of financial infrastructure that will increase the use of financial services. He said that lack of adequate identification system, lack of proper enforcement of existing regulations and steep distribution channel remained major barriers to financial inclusion. He said that between 2008 and 2010, the percentage of financial excluded persons fell from 53 to 46 percent.
According to him, the current level of formal use of financial service is 36 per cent of the adult population. “Nigeria has a very low credit penetration with only 2 per cent access to formal products when compared to the 16 per cent in Tanzania and 32 per cent in South Africa.
“Insurance penetration is as low as one per cent when compared to the 30 per cent in South Africa. Pension still is in its early stage of development at approximately 5 per cent penetration,” he said. He added that for Nigeria to attain financial inclusion, effort must be geared towards ensuring smooth operations in the financial sector.
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