Nigeria’s Push For $1trn Economy Gets Boost From PLAN, FCDO

The federal government’s drive towards a $1 trillion economy has received significant backing through strategic partnerships with the Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLAN) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to deepen financial inclusion governance.

This, the government said, informed its decision to upscale the governance of national financial inclusion with all stakeholders, including the office of the vice president and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on board.

Speaking at a high-level economic workshop in Abuja, the deputy chief of staff to the president (Office of the Vice President), Sen. Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, said successful implementation of government’s social intervention programmes depends on the country’s rapidly digitising payment systems.

According to a statement by the spokesman of the vice president, Stanley Nkwocha, he said, “Financial inclusion has always been within the mandate of the Central Bank but over the years, the targets have been missed. What the Presidency has decided to do is to provide a leading role in galvanising stakeholders who are part of that mandate.”

While financial exclusion has dropped from 46% in 2012 to 26% currently, the government stressed this progress is not sufficient to support ongoing economic reforms.

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“If we don’t achieve financial inclusion, every government programme aimed to have a remedial impact on the most vulnerable may not have its needed impact,” Hadejia warned.

The urgency of financial inclusion has intensified with the digitisation of government services. “A lot of government programmes in the reform process are in targeted interventions which have all migrated to digital payment platforms. If we don’t move on financial inclusion, we basically achieve nothing,” he added.

“Nigeria is at the forefront of the fintech industry. Outside banks now, there are a lot of institutions licensed by government to provide financial services that are not essentially full banking services that would enable most of these financially excluded people to participate,” Senator Hadejia explained.

Earlier, the technical advisor to the president on economic and financial inclusion, Dr. Nurudeen Zauro, explained that the journey started in 2012 when the National Financial Inclusion Strategy was issued.

He said, “The landscape before us is clear – we have over 200 million people, a GDP of USD 472 billion, but less than 1% are insured and 43% live below the poverty line.”

The initiative has gained needed support through international partnerships with PLANE and FCDO. Banking penetration has seen significant growth, rising from 25% in 2008 to 52% by 2023.