The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have agreed to deepen collaboration on financial inclusion in Nigeria.
To firm up the agreement, the CBN has pledged to work with the BMGF and other development partners in proffering solutions to drive access to finance.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja by the apex bank after its strategic meeting with BMGF, acting CBN Governor Folashodun Shonubi noted that “though much progress had been made in various aspects of financial inclusion, some challenges still remain in attaining the desired level of financial inclusion in Nigeria”.
The apex bank’s boss called for greater partnership between the CBN and the BMGF.
Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “The foundation’s focus areas for continued engagement in Nigeria include health, agriculture and financial services.”
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Gates said he was happy that his organisation “is catalysing developmental action in Nigeria”.
He noted that there were still challenges and gaps but expressed optimistic “that the country would witness better outcomes, given the new economic and monetary policies currently in place in Nigeria”.
The CBN stressed that BMGF “has supported financial inclusion in Nigeria since 2012 and has been a strategic partner in driving innovation to reach excluded segments of Nigeria’s population with financial products and services”.
The partnership, the CBN added, “has brought about strategic initiatives, such as the Nigeria Financial Services Maps, a gateway for geospatial mapping of access points, the development of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2012 and a revision in 2018, research into financial exclusion, scoping of digital financial services in Nigeria, and many more activities that help accelerate access to financial services”.