CBN is set to launch its revised national financial inclusion strategy

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), will on Thursday and Friday this week, meet with stakeholders for the launch of key policy documents in financial inclusion, which will drive the apex bank’s financial inclusion target of 80 per cent by 2020.

The policy documents which will be unveiled at the conference is expected to attract over 400 delegates. The document is tagged the Revised National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS 2.0); the Financial Literacy Framework; the Consumer Protection Framework and the Consumer Education framework.

According to details obtained from the CBN, the conference which would be held in Abuja, also aims to ensure that newcomers into the financial inclusion bracket are adequately protected and educated in line with the provisions of the policy documents.

Other objectives of the two-day conference to be declared open by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, are to update participants on the growing sophistication of the financial market, the competitive environment in which financial services providers operate, and the benefit and value of providing access to financial services among others.

While hoping to enhance consumer confidence and trust in the financial services to facilitate progress towards achieving 80 per cent financial inclusion target by 2020, CBN and other stakeholders also seek to obtain customer feedbacks on how best to implement the financial inclusion policies.

Nairametrics had reported that despite the presence of 21 commercial banks, 942 microfinance banks, and numerous financial technology (fintech) and mobile money operators Nigerians are still under-banked. A bulk of this unbanked population comprises rural dwellers, farmers and petty traders.

The CBN had set a financial inclusion target of reaching 80 per cent of the total adult population by 2020, but presently, Nigeria is not on track to meet this target which was set out in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) of 2012.