The Nation Newspaper

Tag: financial inclusion

  • Oradian, group partner to deepen financial inclusion

    THE strategic partnership the Association of Non-Bank Microfinance Institution of Nigeria (ANMFIN) signed with Oradian would help boost financial inclusion, ANMFIN President, Princess Adesola Ogunleye, has said.

    She said the deal would enable the group to promote access to financial services for clients in the country on a larger scale by using ANMFIN Cloud Express.

    According to her, it will enable the group’s Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to move to Oradian’s cloud-based solution, helping its members to save time and money through more efficient, digitised processes, without the use of manual input of data.

    She said: “Together, we align our shared vision and leverage the success delivered to date,” she said, adding that ANMFIN and its members were excited to improve administrative process, reduce high operational costs and offer digital financial services across the country.’’

    Oradian CEO, Antonio Separovic, said launching ANMFIN Cloud Express expands the range of solutions that Oradian offers in Nigeria. “Nigeria was Oradian’s first market when we started six years ago and we remain committed to solving the financial inclusion challenge here,” he said.

  • Financial inclusion: BoI’s Trader Moni raises the bar

    The Federal Government’s financial inclusion agenda has moved a notch higher. The Bank of Industry (BoI), last week, unveiled ‘Trader Moni’, a mobile phone-driven scheme designed to support two million Nigerians with collateral-free loans to grow their businesses. The innovation bodes well for the government’s quest to take financial inclusion to Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid who require very little to survive. This could be the much-needed template to incentivise operators in the informal sector, create jobs and drive inclusive growth. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

    It’s arguably the most innovative and pragmatic response to addressing the lack  of  access  by  certain segments  of  the  society  to  affordable and convenient financial products  and  services  from  mainstream  providers.

    Courtesy of Trader Moni, a mobile phone-driven scheme introduced by the Bank of Industry (BoI) to support businesses with collateral-free loans, a petty trader can now approach any mobile money agent around and supply his details. His details are captured by an agent and sent to the Bank’s system for validation and within 48 hours, the trader gets cash notification or credit alert in his mobile wallet account.

    Under the scheme, the cash can either be transferred to the beneficiary trader’s bank account or cashed at any mobile money agent. Already, the BoI has engaged no fewer than 4,000 enumeration agents to identify the beneficiaries, following the deployment of the new scheme on Tuesday last week in five markets in Lagos State.

    The programme, which is pushing immense possibilities into the hands of operators in the informal sector, particularly petty traders, has reached Mushin, Ikotun, Agege, Ketu, and Abule Egba markets in Lagos. Traders in Kano and Abia states have also lined up to be part of the first round of beneficiaries to draw the collateral-free loans.

    The loans, The Nation learnt, start from N10,000 and can go up to as much as N50,000, depending on the trader’s ability to pay back the loan within the six months grace period. The icing on the cake is that unlike loans from conventional commercial banks, the trader does not need any documents or property as collateral to collect the N10,000. He just registers with any of the agents, gets captured and receives the money or loan through his mobile phone. He also has the six months’ grace to pay back N10,250 and qualify for a bigger loan.

    As BoI Executive Director Toyin Adeniji explained, a starter can access N10,000 and pay back N10,250 to qualify for N15,000.

    “Once you pay back N15,375, you will qualify for N20,000 loan and when you pay back N21,000, you will get N50,000. All loan categories have payback duration of six months,” she said at the launch of the scheme in Ojuwoye Market in Mushin, Lagos.

    Noting that the programme has been activated nationwide, she stated that BoI would not relent until every Nigerian who is willing has access to loan, irrespective of his status or level of education.

    Adeniji pointed out that BoI targets two million Trader Moni beneficiaries across the country between now and the end of the year. She, therefore, urged beneficiaries to do their best to pay back the loans so that others could benefit from the programme. She stated that BoI was in partnership with other banks, such as Fidelity Bank, Wema Bank, GTBank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Heritage Bank, Stanbic Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank and Jaiz Bank, to make paying back the loans easier. The trader only needed to visit any of the banks or key in with a BoI-GEEP agent to pay direct.

     

    Traders laud scheme

    Expectedly, the introduction of Trader Moni has elicited excitement from existing and prospective petty traders. Some of them, who spoke with The Nation, described the innovation as a game-changer, noting that it could not have come at a better time than now when they needed the bank’s support to boost their businesses and contribute to economic growth and development.

    For instance, a pepper seller in Ojuwoye Market, who identified herself as Madam Lucy, said she had been hearing about Trader Moni for a while, but did not believe that the government will be giving people like her loans. She, however, said on seeing other traders singing and dancing on stage, talking about how they received alerts on their phones courtesy of BoI’s Trader Moni, she too decided to give it a try.

    With voice tinged with initial disappointment and regret, the petty trader recalled that she had been turned away by banks when she needed capital to expand her business. She, however, said right there in the market, without having to leave her wares, a Trader Moni agent came to enumerate her, took down her details, captured her photograph and within 48 hours, she received a credit alert on her phone.

    The Iyaloja of Ojuwoye Market, Chief Mufliat Adewunmi, was also full of praise for the government for this laudable initiative. “We are happy about Trader Moni because it is a thing we have been expecting. The government should assist the masses, especially the traders. We thank Trader Moni, we thank the Federal Government for bringing this programme to us. It will help a lot, especially we traders because we all know what we have been facing to get loans,” she said.

    Another trader, Anna Enwerem, could also not hide her excitement. Thanking the Federal Government and the BoI for what she described as a laudable initiative, she said: “I sell clothes. This N10,000 would do a lot for me and my children. I like this programme so much. I will pay back the loan before six months’ time. Before, I didn’t believe it, but now that I have received my money I believe.”

     

    Boost for financial

    inclusion agenda

    For the BoI, Trader Moni is a shot in the arm of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, which has never hidden its intension to drive its financial inclusion agenda.

    The agenda, which the government and, indeed, other experts in the financial sector believe is critical for achieving inclusive growth, seeks to democratise access to financial services to those at the grassroots where pure water, bread, food sellers and Okada riders, among others, can access loan to expand their businesses without any form of security or collateral.

    Adeniji put this in perspective when she said: “The goal of Trader Moni was to take financial inclusion down to the grassroots. The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration recognised the contribution of petty traders to economic development and identified the fact that some of them may not have what the commercial banks may require to grant loans, hence, his support for this initiative to help them grow their businesses.”

    Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) Chief Operating Officer Mr. Uzoma Nwagba was, perhaps, more specific on the imperativeness of the scheme for driving financial inclusion. He said: “This initiative is aimed at expanding financial inclusion because we have over 23 million Nigerians that are financially excluded. This administration aims to reach them so that they can grow their businesses.”

    GEEP is one of the social intervention programmes of the Federal Government. The programme promotes financial inclusion and access to credit for millions of traders, artisans, cooperatives, youth and farmers. BoI launched Trader Moni under GEEP, which also has other schemes aimed at reaching those at the bottom of the pyramid.

    Some of them include Market Moni, a micro-credit loan scheme, which targets market women, traders and artisans to get between N50,000 and N100,000 and is repayable over six months; Farmer Moni for farmers which avail them the opportunity to access up to N300,000 loan each.

    All the schemes, The Nation learnt, draw their strength from the rapid surge in mobile penetration/adoption and use of smartphone/devices, which is a platform for improving financial services, even to the unbanked in the rural areas.

    Unveiling these game-changing innovations, riding on the back of technology to deepen financial inclusion, BoI and experts believe that access to financial services suited for low-income earners promote enormous capital accumulation, credit creation and investment boom.

    This  is so because, usually, the low-income earners constitute the largest proportion of the population and so control enormous chunk of the economy’s idle fund, albeit, held in small amounts in the hands of each of the several million members of this group. The consensus is that harnessing and accumulating these resources provides a huge source of cheap long-term investable fund.

    According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, the Federal Government’s aim for launching Trader Moni and other similar schemes was to further enlarge its financial inclusion agenda for all Nigerians regardless of social class and economic status.

    However, the thinking and rightly so, is that such initiatives, if replicated by the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, could be the required template to unlock the huge potential in the informal economy and contribute significantly to job creation and inclusive growth.

  • eTranzact to deepen financial inclusion

    ETranzact is set to deepen financial inclusion by expanding its PocketMoni service with 10,000 active mobile money agents within the next 24 months. The expansion comes under the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) initiative being funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    The SANEF initiative is an effort by the apex bank to spur quick growth in the level of financial inclusion through availability of financial access points, especially in the Northern part of the country.

    This is also intended to drive the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme (SIP), which relies on improved banking agent network coverage points.

    To ensure effective results, eTranzact was certified as one of the 10 mobile money operators and super agents to roll-out 500,000 agent locations within the next 24 months.

    eTranzact has recorded success in its PocketMoni mobile money service which has empowered over 9,000 agents and two million end-users with ready access to financial services, is well position to deliver on its new SANEF mandate.

    Managing Director, eTranzact, Mr. Niyi Toluwalope, said the company as a global leader in the electronic and mobile payment industry is well-positioned to deliver and attain the goals set by the CBN for the project.

    According to him, over the next 23 months, eTranzact plans to leverage its mobile financial services business to deliver an additional 1,000,000 active end-users, by deploying its innovative distribution capabilities anchored on its active agents.

     

  • Ovia urges NAICOM, NCC, CBN on financial inclusion

    To  acheive Financial Inclusion, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and the  Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must approve the use of mobile phones to sell micro insurance to the poor and excluded adults in the country, Founder and Chairman, Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia  said yesterday.

    He spoke at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja,  during the 2018 Insurance Industry National Conference, entitled: “Insurance Industry and Financial Inclusion.”

    He said while NAICOM has released a new micro insurance guideline in this respect, this will not change if operators would still need to sell the product in the old traditional way.

    He said: “NAICOM has a new guideline on micro insurance but it is not being deployed through mobile telephony. The Commission can’t deploy micro insurance through the traditional old ways. It should be done through new means which is technology. The Commission, NCC and CBN need to approve mobile telephony for the distribution of micro insurance urgently,” he said.

    Meanwhile, NAICOM yesterday said it has concluded plans to launch the Nigerian Insurance Industry Development Plan (NIIDP) in order to boost financial inclusion.

    The commission said it had already concluded work on the NIIDP, with KPMG, a consulting firm monitoring its implementation to ensure each segment of the market kept to date with their assigned responsibilities.

  • CBN: financial inclusion to add $36b deposits to banks

    Banks’deposits are expected to rise by $36 billion in 2025, a financial inclusion report released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.

    The Exposure Draft of the Financial Inclusion Strategy signed by CBN Director, Development Finance Department, Modashiru Olaitan, said 46 million new individuals will join the financial system, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will rise by 12.4 to $88 billion by 2025, new credit worth $57 billion will be given to customers, three million jobs to be created while $2 billion reduction in government leakage annually will be achieved.

    He said: “There  is global consensus that  financial  sector  development  makes  two  mutually  reinforcing contributions  to  poverty  reduction  through  its  impact  on  economic  growth  (finance  for  growth) and direct benefits to the poor using financial services. An increasing body of evidence shows that appropriate financial services can help improve household welfare and spur small enterprise activity. There is also  macroeconomic  evidence to demonstrate that  economies  with  deeper  financial intermediation tend to grow faster and reduce income inequality.”

    Continuing, he said for Nigeria  specifically, past  research  shows  the  potential  economic  benefits of  digital  financial services (DFS).

    “As such, financial inclusion is critical to the economic  recovery and  growth  of  Nigeria. Senior political  leaders, including  the Vice  President, have  made  public  statements  that  emphasise the importance  of  financial  inclusion, most  recently  during  the  official  visit  of  the  UN  Secretary-General’s  Special  Advocate  for  Inclusive  Finance  for  Development to  Nigeria  in  November  2017,” Modashiru said.

    He said government officials had also emphasised the need to act swiftly and collaboratively to accelerate progress towards financial inclusion by “propagating digital financial services as simple, flexible and easy alternative channels for reaching our remote areas and rural hinterland”.

    He said given  the  importance  of  financial  inclusion,  it  is  crucial  to  have  a  strong  strategy for achieving  the financial inclusion goals and targets that have been established by the CBN. The goal of this strategy is to realise a financial system that is accessible to adults, at an inclusion rate of 80 per cent, and to promote the country’s economic growth.

    “There  is global consensus that  financial  sector  development  makes  two  mutually  reinforcing contributions  to  poverty  reduction  through  its  impact  on  economic  growth  (finance  for  growth) and direct benefits to the poor using financial services. An increasing body of evidence shows that appropriate financial services can help improve household welfare and spur small enterprise activity. At present,  Nigeria is not on track to  meet  the 2020 targets  set  out  in  the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) of 2012.”

    The NFIS set two financial inclusion targets for 2020: an overall financial inclusion rate of 80 per cent of the adult population and a formal financial inclusion rate of 70 per cent of the adult population. As of 2016, just 58.4 per cent of Nigeria’s 96.4 million adults were financially served and only 48.6 per cent of adults used formal financial services. The NFIS defined an additional 15 targets for channels, products and enabling environment, as well as 22 key performance  indicators (KPIs) related to these targets.

    “Still, promising developments have emerged, especially in recent times, as new stakeholders have joined the  push  for  financial  inclusion. For  instance,  the  CBN  and  the Nigerian  Communications  Commission  signed  an  MoU  on  digital  payment  systems in  2018.

    “Also  in the same year, CBN collaborated with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) to create a regulatory  sandbox  that  will  allow  financial  technology  start-ups  to  test  solutions  in  a  controlled environment and  is partnering  with  the  private sector  to  roll out  a 500,000-agent  network to offer basic  financial  services.

    “In  addition,  several  players in the private  sector  have  introduced new products  and  services  aimed at the un-serve/underserved,  and new partnerships are  driving  the delivery of digital financial services more widely—programmes have been launched to boost access to  finance specifically for  excluded groups, such as  women  and  micro, small  and  medium-sized enterprises.”

    In 2012, the CBN adopted the NFIS. The document  articulated  the  challenges  in  financial inclusion; identified  areas  of  focus, key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets; and described the implementation structure. The strategy was built on the four strategic areas of agency banking, mobile banking/mobile payments, linkage models and client  empowerment.

  • EFInA, CcHub promote financial inclusion

    Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), Nigeria’s leading financial sector development organisation and CcHub, hosted  a FinTech roundtable session in Lagos with the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Charles Bowman; Financial sector regulators and financial technology (FinTech) companies and other stakeholders.

    During a presentation on ‘Financial inclusion, the regulatory landscape and opportunities for FinTechs to promote Financial Inclusion in Nigeria’, the Electronic Payment Specialist for EFInA, Folasade Agbejule, said “EFInA’s mission is to spur growth in the financial development sector by providing grants to financial services operators through the Innovation Fund.

    EFInA targets the economically deprived population by sharing risks with Financial Service Providers (FSPs) through its Technical Assistance Grant and the Innovation Grant subsidies to the amount of $250,000 and $2 million.

    As part of its mission to promote financial inclusion in Nigeria EFInA desires to improve the existing infrastructure in the financial sector so that  FinTechs can play  an increasing role in the efficient delivery of financial services to the un(der) banked in Nigeria.

    EFInA Board Chair, Segun Akerele, in his welcome address, emphasised the importance of the company’s partnership with the Department for International Development (DFID) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation while identifying foreign collaborations and regulatory principles that can catalyse and accelerate local growth in the financial service sector.

    Furthermore, he stated that the difficulties associated with access to financial services has led to a  large population of unbanked adults and  encouraged  FinTechs and financial service providers  to develop more innovative financial inclusive products. He also appealed to regulators to take  lessons from the United Kingdom’s regulatory principles.

    Managing Partner, CcHub Growth Capital Fund, Tunji Elesho commenced the round table discussion saying: “Our goal today is to explore the immense opportunities for growth in Nigeria’s FinTech ecosystem and that way, allow users improve their lives and take control of their financial situation”

  • SEC seeks financial inclusion for Nigerians

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday said it hopes to reach 80 per cent of the population by 2020 in its financial inclusion initiative.

    The organisation said there is need for Nigerians in rural areas to be effectively sensitised on the benefits of investing in the capital market.

    Its Acting Director-General, Ms. Mary Uduk, said this at a sensitisation campaign in Kwali Area Council, Abuja.

    Represented by the Acting Head of Department, Market Development Department at the commission, Mr. Frank Okafor, Ms. Uduk said the financial inclusion enlightenment campaign was to ensure that various products were made available to the excluded.

    She said: “Our target is to have 80 per cent citizens to be financially included by the year 2020 and having recorded huge success in Bwari, Kuje Area Councils and University of Abuja, it has become pertinent that we extend the programme to other communities hence our presence here today.

     

     

  • SystemSpecs seeks special fund to drive financial inclusion

    Indigenous tech firm, SystemSpecs Limited, has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to establish a special fund to deepen its financial inclusion goals.

    Its Executive Director, Deremi Atanda, who spoke on the sidelines of Digital Pay Expo in Lagos at the weekend, said there are many issues around the push for financial inclusion, adding that literacy is one of them.

    He stressed the imperative for a special fund to drive financial inclusion, adding that the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) is an example of the intervention the Federal Government could make to ease the drive on the lenders.

    “I think the banks are committed to financial literacy but it won’t happen in one year. It is a commitment for 2020, which didn’t start yesterday. I have been part of the commitment since 2007. We need to evaluate where we are, so we don’t get derailed, and where we want to be. These are the kind of things we must do. When those targets were set, we have the financial implication of what it will cost, which is not the same now. So, who is going to plug that gap for 2020 dream to be realised? Along the way, there have been many disruptions they didn’t factor in, both the economic aspect and technology.

    “The honest truth is that the pervasiveness of technology is going to make the realisation of these things a lot easier, faster but someone needs to be committed to facilitating it. USPF for example (in the telecoms sector), is there (to ensure that the unserved and underserved rural communities are reached through service subsidy). There is need for a commitment in terms of funding to make sure financial inclusion happen. It might interest you that majority of people investing in that are foreign institutions such as the Bill Melinda Foundation and you ask yourself where the counterpart funding is coming from local institutions. The bank has just committed itself to SINEF, which is rolling out about 500, 000 agents, which CBN is also part of.

    “But don’t forget that the interface of business with the realisation of national policy, money will go after money. If the agents are just to work to achieve a national policy that will not be economically beneficiary to them, somebody must incentive it so that national objection is realise. It is just a matter of time, when that business is worthwhile and there is a plug in from the right agencies of the government, sooner than you think that will happen,” he said.

  • FSD Africa assures Diamond Bank on financial inclusion

    The Financial Sector Development for Africa, (FSD Africa), an agency funded by the United Kingdom through UK Aid, has reiterated its commitment to provide more support for Diamond Bank Plc on its financial inclusion drive.

    At a dinner hosted by Diamond Bank in honour of visiting executives from FSD Africa, the agency noted that though it has partnerships with other banks and organisations across Africa, the partnership with Diamond Bank has been its longest and most successful.

    Director, Financial Services, FSD Africa, Paul Musoke said it had not only been providing funding but also working closely with the Diamond Bank team to improve financial inclusion.

    “We commend Diamond Bank for employing professionalism in all their dealings with us,” Musoke said.

    Diamond Bank Plc Managing Director, Mr Uzoma Dozie, said the bank has opened up many opportunities for small and medium enterprises and savers through innovative products that target each segment of the population.

    He said the bank has achieved more success in its financial inclusion projects by partnering donor agencies such as EFIna, Women’s World Banking (WWB) and FSD Africa.

     

  • Ecobank promotes financial inclusion on campuses

    Ecobank Nigeria has commenced a youth engagement programme in tertiary institutions across Nigeria as part of efforts to deepen financial inclusion by banking the youth.

    The initiative, themed: “Ecobank Xpress Campus Storm” will avail students of tertiary institutions the opportunity to open the Ecobank Xpress account, a digital account that requires no documentation, minimum balance or paperwork, simply by downloading the Ecobank Mobile app.

    With the Ecobank Xpress account, students will be able to access financial services such as airtime top up, funds transfer and bill payment from their mobile devices. Parents and Guardians will also be able to transfer money to their children or wards‘ Xpress accounts which they can withdraw without a card at any Ecobank ATM or Xpress Point.

    The first phase of this initiative will cover 24 universities, polytechnics and colleagues of education across the country.

    Flagging off the programme, Executive Director Consumer Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Carol Oyedeji, said the activation is to empower young people by offering them convenient, affordable and accessible financial services anytime, anywhere from their mobile. She reiterated that it was in line with the bank’s strategy to make banking available to the hitherto unbanked and under-banked in support of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial inclusive drive.