A long walk to financial inclusion🥵

Nov 19, 2021

Hello Venturer,

While coming of age, it wasn't unusual to see market men and women hide wads of notes to their wrappers and other odd locations believed to be safe. Although banks were popular then, these notes don't make it to banking halls. This category of people are said to not be financially included in a county's financial system.

Achieving a high level of financial inclusion in an economy is important, this is why governments set financial inclusion targets and implement policies to make it easy.

Nigeria is one of many countries that is keen on closing the financial inclusion gap to achieve economic development. In 2020, Nigeria marked 80 percent as its financial inclusion target but only 64 percent of bankable adults were financially included by the end of the target year.

That Nigeria has been on this path for a long time, one begins to wonder when it will reach its destination. This week, we shed light on Nigeria's seemingly unending journey towards financial inclusion.

Adekunle Agbetiloye

Staff Writer, Ventures Africa.

What's New

Nigeria’s never-ending journey towards financial inclusion.

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COP 26: The implications of ending global fossil fuel projects on the Nigerian economy.

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Over a decade after bitcoin — the first cryptocurrency— was invented, the debate for its adoption has not ceased. Cryptocurrencies have faced resistance from political, financial, and recently, religious elites. But some have welcomed it, and others have even thrown their weight behind it. The African continent had the fastest cryptocurrency adoption rate in the world this year, driven by peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions in key growth markets. Learn more.

Agriculture and technology can speed up Africa's economic growth, but there are hurdles.

The World Bank projected that the economy would expand by 3.3 percent in 2021. Nonetheless, Africa’s path to development is slow and needs catalysts. For the continent to develop, its output growth needs to outpace its teeming population. Africa’s economy depends heavily on agriculture. If integrated with technology, it can speed up Africa’s economic growth, but there are hurdles. Learn more.

Resetting Africa includes bridging the infrastructural gaps.

As democracy in Africa strengthens, the infrastructure development level on the continent is also gaining traction. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, halted the inspiring pivot to infrastructure development on the African continent. Funds previously voted for infrastructure projects were hurriedly redeployed to cater to pending national needs to avert deep public health and humanitarian crisis. Read more.

Mastercard Academy launches educational platform to help SME owners grow resilient businesses.

From urban kiosks and rural farmers to fashion stores, service providers, and entrepreneurs in countless other sectors, the small business segment in the region have faced unprecedented changes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, further fueled by the rapid acceleration of digital transformation and e-commerce. To support these SMEs, Mastercard Academy has launched a digital education platform that brings together a range of world-class academic and business resources to help small businesses learn and thrive. Read more.