Financial inclusion is taking center stage as businesses are conforming with digitization which has continued to permeate everyday activities across the global space. Nigeria is tapping the benefits of the innovation by maximizing the gains of this technological movement for financial inclusion among the populace.
As part of the activities geared towards fostering sustainable seamless business inclusion especially among the unbanked and underbanked Nigerian populace, innovative telecoms brand, 9mobile collaborated with Ecobank, Vanguard Newspapers, Sanef, and other stakeholders in the financial industry.
It was an avenue to brainstorm on germane financial issues while charting a course to further establish the cashless policy of the Apex Bank through digitization.
The virtual session focused on mobile payment systems and ways to bridge this gap after the covid-19 experience.
Director of Payment Systems at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Jimoh Musa, noted that Nigeria has made a commitment to reduce the figures of financially excluded people from 46% to 20%.
He added that the idea and strategy of the CBN to introduce agent banking and mobile money was basically conceived to solve financial inclusion and proximity issues.
“One of the things that we found was that it was difficult for people in the rural communities to gain access to financial touch-points to the extent that people in the rural communities would have to travel to the nearest financial touch-point.”
Speaking at the virtual session, Alan Sinfield CEO of 9mobile, reiterated that the company is continually exploring strategic windows that will bring more creative innovations to Nigerians.
“9PSB provides an opportunity to further pursue this commitment to serve more people in a manner that improves their quality of life,” he said.
“We are confident that 9PSB will drive savings and investments as more liquidity is mobilized from the informal sector into the mainstream financial system. This will result in increased economic activities in the informal sector and the overall economy.” He added.
He explained that there is a crucial need for collaborations and partnerships among telcos and Bankers to achieve more inclusion.
“We are ready to partner with relevant bodies to reach the unbanked and under-banked population in Nigeria. Telcos in Nigeria have customer data advantage that Nigeria’s financial institutions can benefit from to deepen penetration” the telco chief said.
Managing Director and Regional Executive of Ecobank Nigeria, Mr Patrick Akinwuntan explained that Nigeria’s population of over 200 million people underscores the unique potentials inherent in harnessing this inclusion drive.
His words: “essentially, the most critical task for us is how we can move from the narrative of using financial inclusion for poverty alleviation to providing wealth creation and gainful economic engagement with the largest pool of participants in the economy.”
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