Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has set state-by-state targets for the 21 commercial banks and 942 micro finance banks in the country to ensure that every Nigerian adult has access to financial services.
Governor Mrs Elizabeth Agu, the CBN Branch Controller, Federal Capital Territory, made this known yesterday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Financial Inclusion State Steering Committee, FISSCO. She said CBN had broken down the target state-by-state “to ensure that the masses and people at the grassroots have access to financial services such as payments, savings, credit, insurance and pension.”
According to her, target for banks was set because the CBN planned to achieve 80 per cent financial inclusion by 2020, yet two years to the deadline, the country had only achieved 41.6 per cent. Agu explained that “the cost-cutting and diverse nature of the targeted services require collaborative efforts by stakeholders in the financial sector, especially at the grassroots.
“In particular, financial service providers at the state level are pertinent to achieving at least 80 per cent inclusion of adult population by the year 2020. To achieve this, each of the Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, operating in the FCT have the target to get a minimum of 1,500 new savings customers by 2018, the Micro Finance Banks, MFBs, have the target to open at least 2,500 new accounts. The DMBs in the FCT have to also offer credit to at least 600 fresh individuals and for the MFBs, they have the target of ensuring that at least 1,000 customers are offered fresh credit.”
Agu said the CBN also planned to adopt special strategies for the North East, North West and North Central, where financial exclusion rate was very high. She noted that “We are also conceptualising on ways and means to reach out to women whose culture and religion require specialised products and channels. We remain committed to reaching out to everybody with appropriate financial products, even in the southern part of the country where significant progress is achieved in the last two years.”
Agu said that the newly inaugurated FISSCO, which would be responsible for ensuring that the targets were achieved at the grassroots in the FCT, would be chaired by FCT CBN Branch Controller. Meanwhile, Mr Christian Ohaa, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Administration, pledged to work with the CBN to ensure that the target set for the FCT was achieved.
Related posts:
CBN targets market-determined exchange rates
Naira appreciates as CBN targets convergence
CBN targets single digit Inflation rate
Emefiele targets double digit-growth in a CBN’s 5-year roadmap
CBN directs banks, BDCs to sell forex to travellers
CBN stipulates N5bn minimum capital requirement for service banks
CBN orders banks to obtain customer’s credit history
CBN to increase banks LDR to 70% in 2020
