BEVERLY HILLS, February 12, (THEWILL) – Deposit Money Banks in the country under the aegis of the Bankers’ Committee have disclosed that 57 million Nigerians, which represents 66 per cent of the population, now have access to one form of financial services or the other.
The CBN Director in charge of Banking Supervision Department, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, made this known on Thursday when she briefed journalists at the end of the committee’s meeting in Abuja. She was joined by the Managing Directors of Access Bank Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe; Standard Chartered Bank, Mrs Bola Adesola; Diamond Bank Plc, Mr Uzoma Dozie.
According to Martins, “One of the major issues we discussed is the issue of financial inclusion. It is very important for 170 million Nigerians to have some form of access to financial services and so I am happy to report that there has been substantial improvement.
“You know a couple of years back, the number of Nigerians financially included was at 40 per cent but currently we have 66 per cent of Nigerians financially included which is about 57 million Nigerians.
“The target that we are working on is 68.5 per cent by the end of December 2016 and so if that target is achieved, I think we would have gone a long way in alleviating the sufferings if Nigerians.”
Noting that the North East region remained the most challenging area when it comes to financial inclusion, the CBN Director assured that central bank would deploy more resources to the region to increase the level of financial inclusion.
She further noted that within the last few months, the country had witnessed a significant increase in the demand for foreign exchange for payment of school fees and medical bills abroad which constituted as much as 15 percent of Nigeria’s forex demand.
Martins regretted that the development was currently crowding out the demand for foreign exchange in the real sector such as manufacturing, agriculture, solid minerals among others, stressing that if left unchecked, the trend could affect the banking sector’s objective of stimulating the real sector of the economy through the provision of foreign exchange to productive sectors of the economy.
Disclosing this after its meeting with Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, under the auspices of the bankers’ committee in Abuja, CBN disclosed that it would be focusing on releasing forex to the manufacturing sector, which would in turn grow the local economy.
Revealing that the CBN would soon stop making forex available to Nigerians seeking to use it for medical tourism and to pay school fees abroad, she explained that “It is something that affects all of us, and I think that the watchword is belt tightening. It is pain we may need to go through today, so that there will be long term development in the country.
“If you think about it, the pressure on forex now from school fees abroad is significant. The pressure medicals are significant. At what point should we begin to look inward? As Nigerians, we also need to be patriotic in terms of our sentiments.”
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