The Sunday Mail
Nigeria fell short of its goal to bring more of its citizens into the regulated financial system, with the effects of the pandemic and difficulty in penetrating rural areas weighing on the effort.
Almost 36 percent of adults in Africa’s most populous country didn’t have any kind of bank account at the end of 2020, according to EFInA, a UK-backed development organisation that seeks to bolster inclusive finance in Nigeria.
The figure was little changed from two years ago and well above the government’s goal of cutting the proportion of nationals without financial access to 20 percent, which it set in 2013.
The West African nation has sought to bring more of its citizens into the formal financial sector as part of efforts to modernise its economy, bolster tax collection and cut back on informal jobs that often exploit workers. It has licensed banks, wireless carriers and technology companies to offer services as part of efforts to broaden access, especially for the two-thirds of the population that live outside of cities. Job losses tied to the pandemic and social distancing measures hurt efforts to broaden access to banks, EFInA said. — Bloomberg.`
