CBN targets 25,000 women, youth in states for digital financial inclusion

Following the recent launch of the eNaira in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), along with its stakeholders, has revealed plans to engage target groups in selected Nigerian States in order to facilitate their economic empowerment and inclusion and in line with the drive to ensure the digital financial inclusion of women and youth across Nigeria.

The apex bank, in a statement, noted that the programme is aimed at executing its framework for advancing women’s financial inclusion in Nigeria and improve access to financial products and services amongst vulnerable segments of the Nigerian society.

This drive for financial inclusion, which is scheduled to run through the first five days in November starting with Gombe State, is the first of six engagements expected to cut across states with high numbers of financially excluded women and youth. The bank also said it targets at least 25,000 women and youth across the state.

Currently, Nigeria in its quest to achieve 94 percent overall financial inclusions and close the gender gap in access to finance by 2024, has a national financial inclusion rate of 64.9 percent, and a financial inclusion gender gap of 8 percent; although the 2020 A2F survey by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access in Nigeria (EFInA) states that only 26 percent of adult women and 27 percent of youths in Gombe State have access to one form of financial product or service.

Similarly, a recent report published by McKinsey Global Institute stressed the critical importance of women’s financial inclusion to global GDP growth, noting that if countries in Africa can focus on closing gender gaps in their respective jurisdictions, the continent could add $316 billion or 10 percent to GDP in the period to 2025.

However, the drive by the apex bank, which it said is expected to improve financial literacy and build awareness on the benefits of the use of digital financial services and contribute to increased access to payments, savings and credit enhancement opportunities for rural women and youth across the country, leveraging digital platforms, will also promote the uptake of other financial products and services amongst women and youth, including insurance, pension and capital market products, through agents.

The statement further notes that the DFI drive for women and youth in Gombe State will hold across Biliri, Kaltungo, Akko, Yemaltu Deba and Dukku local government areas, and will specifically create awareness on the Central Bank Digital Currency and its benefits, credit enhancement schemes of the government and other financial products and services.

It identified Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Niger and Oyo as the other states with high populations of vulnerable financially excluded women and youths.

In addition to reducing the high statistics on women’s exclusion, the CBN’s digital financial drive is also expected to help curb restiveness amongst the youth population by exposing them to economically viable ways of improving their livelihoods and ensure that they understand the need for safety of their funds protected within formal financial institutions.