- Achieving financial inclusion requires concerted efforts to make financial products accessible and affordable to unbanked and underserved individuals.
- Industry stakeholders should localize financial education, reduce service costs, and simplify financial products and processes.
9 Payment Service Bank (9PSB), Nigeria’s digital payment service bank committed to financial inclusion, reiterated at the recent RegTech Africa Conference in Lagos that financial inclusion is essential for poverty reduction and economic prosperity in Africa.
Themed: ‘Harnessing Partnerships for Africa’s Prosperity – Bridging the Data Trust Gap,’ the eventwas a convergence of financial experts and thought leaders in the digital financial service industry across Africa, aimed at sharing knowledge and proffering strategies to increase data trust in the last mile digital financial service delivery.
Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer, 9 Payment Service Bank (9PSB), Branka Mracajac in his keynote presentation, stated that financial inclusion remains a key focus in Nigeria and in Africa, noting that it plays a significant role in reducing poverty and fostering prosperity of the people.
She said that achieving the desired results requires a conscious effort by players in the industry to make financial products and services available, accessible, and affordable for all unbanked and underserved individuals and businesses, regardless of their age, gender, geographical region, and socioeconomic status.
It also aims at empowering people with knowledge through financial literacy programmes and providing them with tools such as savings accounts and other payment options to participate in formal financial systems.
“A survey conducted in Nigeria in 2008 by EFinA revealed that about 53 per cent of adults were excluded from financial services. Furthermore, financial inclusion as a vehicle for economic development has had a notable positive impact in Nigeria.
“It decreased the exclusion rate from the initial 53 per cent of about 40 million adults to 36 per cent which today means about 29 million adult Nigerians. 59 per cent of households in Nigeria are income providers, while most of the income providers are women, unfortunately, they are the ones that are mostly excluded from formal financial services.
“Since Nigeria has about 26 per cent of adult Nigerians that are financially excluded, the target for this year as mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria is to attain a 25 per cent inclusion figure,” Mracajac added.
“As we strive to grow financial inclusion, lack of access to financial services, low financial literacy among the populace, the prohibitive cost of financial services, and lack of trust in financial institutions are standing as roadblocks.
“Therefore, stakeholders and various industry players should begin to adopt localization of financial literacy and education, reduce the minimal cost of accessibility for the people, and simplify products, and processes,” she remarked.
The 2024 RegTech Africa Conference had a line-up of stellar speakers, case studies, panel discussions, engaging discussions, and unique presentations providing access to a wealth of industry-leading knowledge, sharing best practices and experiences, spotlighting trends, information exchange, cutting-edge insights, and outlooks with actionable takeaways.