Just In: Nigeria Misses 80 Percent Financial Inclusion Target

Nigeria has reportedly failed to meet its target of achieving 80 percent financial inclusion of its adult population by 2020, revealed a new report.

This revelation came to limelight during a webinar organized by the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), yesterday.

According to the report, 36 percent of Nigerian adults, that is 38 million adults remained completely and financially excluded at the end of 2020.

The report titled “EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2020 Survey” stated that the growth marginally increased from 63.2 percent to 64.1 in the period under review.

“Although Nigeria has a higher proportion of banked adults than many comparator countries, it also has a high proportion of financially excluded adults at 36percent,” the report said.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the data indicated that Nigeria had a higher rate of financial exclusion than many other countries.

In 2019, the country had targeted through the National Financial Inclusion Strategy reducing financially excluded adults to 20 per cent.

Of the 64.1 percent, 50.5percent (54.6 million adults) of Nigerian adults had access to formal financial services in 2020. The figure was up from 48.4 million.