Kayode Ekundayo
15 October 2008
Lagos — Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFINA), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) said in Lagos yesterday that it has secured N1.965 billion in form of guarantee facility from the Ford Foundation and Department for International Development (DFID), for the purpose of promoting pro-poor financial sector development in Nigeria.
Besides, the organization in an independent survey conducted, said only two per cent of Nigeria's population have access to insurance products.
Adedotun Sulaiman, EFINA's chairman, said the role of the organisation is to provide information to financial institutions and regulators which they can develop and exploit to offer products and services that can best suit the less privileged in the society.
He said: "Our main target is building capacity of regulators and financial services industry players as well as engage in policy related advocacy that would facilitate the development of a broader and more balanced financial sector strategy.
"We are also out to improve the level of credible market information available to regulators and the private sector, by initiating an ambitious research agenda, firstly targeting the nearly vacant space of demand-space data through a large sample access to finance in Nigeria survey based on Finscope methodology."
He said concerned about poor data and information in the country, Ford and DFID guaranteed $1 million and £8 million respectively for five years, adding that the organization will only play an advocacy role in educating financial institutions on many opportunities to exploit.
The chief operating officer of the organization, Mrs Modupe Ladipo, said the emphasis is on empowerment of the poor through access to financial services, adding that a survey and research conducted by the organization through a South Africa based firm, FinMark Research and Marketing Services (RMS) show a sad development in the nation's banking and insurance sectors.
The result of the survey made available to Daily Trust, 79 per cent of adult population are unbanked, 85 per cent of adult female are unbanked while 53 per cent of the Nigerian adult population are financially excluded, no access to either formal or informal financial services.
The report also revealed that only two per cent of the adult population have access to insurance products while 67 per cent of the adult population is currently saving but 33 per cent of those saving do so at home.
Mrs Ladipo said though the report would be reviewed every two years to track changes and progress within the market, only five per cent of the adult population usually asks for financial advice from banks, while 82 get their financial advice from a family member.
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