More than 65 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to the services of financial institutions, Mr Ugochukwu Okoafor, Central Bank of Nigeria’s Head of Corporate Affairs Department, says.
Okoafor stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos.
“More than 65 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to the formal financial institutions’ services.
“We intend to capture Nigerians who are out of the banking system,’’ he said.
Okoafor said a financial inclusion policy had been unveiled to get “unbanked people’’ into the banking sector.
“The policy simply means capturing Nigerians who do not identify with the banking sector.
“The CBN wants to bring a significant number of these people into the system,’’ he added.
NAN reports that scholars, government officials and banking leaders from across the globe had at a conference on March 1 in the U.S. discussed the issue of how banks can reach the unbanked.
Part of the objectives is to increase savings, improve credit, and accumulate assets when managing money outside of the traditional financial sector.