Vol. 8(1), pp. 1-5, 2020
ISSN: 2354-2357
Copyright ©2020, the copyright of this article is retained by the author(s)
https://gjournals.org/GJEA
Financial Inclusion in Nigeria: An Evaluation of the Progress, Challenges and Trend
Iwedi, Marshal (PhD)
Department of Banking and Finance, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Article No.: 070720084
Type: Research
The gap between the financially reached and the unreached (banked and unbanked) is enormous in Nigeria even after 58 years of independence and 7 years of launching the Nigeria National Financial inclusion strategy, bulk of the adult population still remains financially excluded. Despite the progress made, the financial exclusion rate stood at 34.5% in 2018 from 46.3% in 2010. With this statistics, it shows that Nigeria as a nation still operates with large volume of physical cash for financial transaction. The importance of financially including the numbers of Nigeria without access to financial services is informed by the potential of accumulating and mobilizing bulk of deposits or saving outside the banking system which will form part of investible funds that will promote productive activity as well as leads to inclusive growth. This paper explores the state of financial inclusion in Nigeria, the progress made, barriers to financial inclusion and its potential impact on the Nigerian economy. The paper discovered and identified that the main challenges to financial inclusion remains high rate poverty among Nigerians, institutional exclusion and the poor’s financial behavior. These challenges are responsible for the shallow depth of financial inclusion in Nigeria. Therefore, we suggest that effort to grow the Nigeria economy should be intensified with the intent of creating jobs for millions of the poor rural dwellers while the gap between the financially excluded and reached can further be bridge by the innovation of internet banking, prepaid cards, debit/credit cards and mobile money.
Accepted: 09/07/2020
Published: 15/07/2020
*Corresponding Author
Iwedi Marshal
E-mail: iwedimarshal@ yahoo.com
Keywords:
Financial Inclusion; Poverty; Economic Development; Nigeria
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Journal Name : citation_journal : Greener Journal of Economics and Accountancy
Publication Status/Date : usp_status_date : 15/07/2020
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