Nigeria hits 73% financial inclusion target, but 60.4 million adults remain vulnerable

Nigeria’s formal financial inclusion rose to 73% in 2026, exceeding the 70% target under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), yet only 30.7% of formally included adults are financially healthy, leaving approximately 60.4 million adults financially vulnerable or merely coping.

This is according to the 2026 Access to Financial Services in Nigeria (A2F) Survey conducted by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) and weighted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The survey covered 18,679 adults across all 36 states and the FCT, achieving 98% of its target sample of 18,950 interviews, with household listing and data collection conducted between April and June 2026.

Financial Inclusion rises, health lags:

According to the report, financial inclusion, covering both formal and informal access, rose to 79% in 2026 from 74% in 2023 and 68% in 2020. Formal financial inclusion climbed to 73%, representing about 87.2 million adults, compared with 64% in 2023 and 56% in 2020.

However, the improvement in access has not translated proportionately into financial health and resilience.

• Overall financial inclusion now covers approximately 94.2 million adults, while formal financial inclusion covers about 87.2 million.
• Digital financial services recorded faster growth, rising from 45% in 2023 to 64.4% in 2026, equivalent to roughly 77 million adults.
• Only about 25% of Nigerian adults overall are financially healthy, compared with the 73% who are formally included, creating what the report describes as a 48-percentage-point “access-health gap.”
• Only 10.6% of formally included adults can raise N156,000 within seven days without difficulty, although this compares with just 3.7% among adults who are not formally included.

The report describes the risk of expanding financial access without corresponding improvements in financial health as “participation without progress.”

Coping Loans overtake productive credit:

Formal credit use increased to about 10% of adults, equivalent to 11.9 million people, from 6% in 2023, although this remains substantially below the 40% NFIS target cited in the report. The composition of borrowing also changed significantly between 2023 and 2026.

• Coping and consumption became the largest reported purpose for formal borrowing, overtaking credit used for productive enterprise activity.
• The share of formal borrowers using credit for coping or consumption increased from 31.7% in 2023 to 40.8% in 2026, a rise of 9.1 percentage points.
• Productive enterprise borrowing declined from 40.2% to 34.3%, while household-asset borrowing fell from 25.2% to 23.4%.
• Formal credit use among informally employed Nigerians rose from 5% to 15%, while usage among adults aged 18 to 35 doubled from 4% to 10%.
• About 45.8% of formal-credit users reported some or serious repayment stress, while 83.8% experienced ongoing financial stress.

This represents a reversal from 2023, when productive borrowing exceeded coping and consumption borrowing by 8.5 percentage points. By 2026, coping and consumption led productive enterprise borrowing by 6.5 percentage points, representing a swing of about 15 percentage points.

Insurance and inclusion gaps persist:

Insurance and pension coverage remain substantially behind access to banking, payments and other formal financial services. Formal insurance penetration stood at only 5.2%, equivalent to approximately 6.2 million adults, while pension participation covered about 9% of adults.

The survey also shows that inclusion gains have been uneven across geography, income, education and gender.

• About 93% of formally included adults, or roughly 81 million people, remain uninsured, while 59.9% of insured adults are classified as financially healthy.
• The urban-rural formal-inclusion gap widened from 24 to 27 percentage points, with urban inclusion reaching 85% compared with 58% in rural areas.
• Formal inclusion stood at 96.4% in the South West, compared with 61.4% in the North East and 62.7% in the North West.
• Digital financial services reached 78% of urban adults but only 47% of rural adults, while usage stood at 70.5% among men and 58% among women.

Trust also remains closely associated with continued use of formal financial services, as 96.9% of consumers who trusted their provider had used it within the previous 90 days, compared with 65.6% among consumers who distrusted their provider.

Millions remain financially vulnerable:

The survey indicates that Nigeria has made substantially more progress in bringing adults into formal accounts, payments and digital financial services than in expanding products that strengthen resilience and long-term financial security.

• Approximately 60.4 million formally included adults remain financially vulnerable or merely coping despite the country surpassing its formal-inclusion target.
• The data also shows that the nature of credit use is shifting at the same time that access is expanding.
• Coping and consumption now account for 40.8% of reported formal borrowing purposes, compared with 34.3% for productive enterprise activity.
• Only 30.7% of formally included adults are financially healthy despite formal inclusion reaching 73%.
• Insurance penetration remains at 5.2%, while pension participation covers about 9% of adults.

The survey identifies fraud control, reliability, transparent pricing, data protection and effective complaint resolution as important to meaningful and sustained financial inclusion.

• A recent Nairametrics report points to a more challenging credit environment. Consumer credit outstanding fell 19.89% to N3.78 trillion in 2025, marking its first decline in six years. The decline was driven largely by weaker personal lending.
• Nairametrics also reported that consumer credit fell to N3.03 trillion in February 2026, as retail loans plunged 42% amid elevated borrowing costs. The average maximum lending rate stood at 35.17%.
• The implication is that the challenge is not simply increasing credit availability. Borrowing must increasingly support income generation and productive activity, particularly for households and informal businesses operating with limited financial buffers.
• Digital lending is also becoming more selective. Nairametrics reported that lenders are moving away from unsecured instant loans towards borrowers with verifiable income, established credit histories and more predictable cash flows.

The survey does not attribute the increase in coping borrowing to specific factors such as inflation, food prices, rent, school fees or medical costs. Its findings instead establish that access has expanded faster than financial health, leaving the next challenge centred on translating financial inclusion into resilience and productive economic participation.