Nigeria: 'Financial Inclusion Policy Has Come to Stay'

19 January 2014

Ms. Abiola Bashorun, Chief Executive, Kunden Services Limited, African Representative of Mobile Cards Solutions Limited and Group Managing Director, Kasmal Group of Companies, is one of the ambassadors of the Central Bank of Nigeria's Financial Inclusion policy. In this encounter with Festus Akanbi, she dismissed the fears that the anticipated change of baton at the CBN would threaten the sustainability of the policy, saying the popularity of the financial inclusion policy is spreading like fire There is no doubt that the financial inclusion policy will outlive the tenure of the current management of the Central Bank of Nigeria. It is not a matter of survival anymore. It is excelling.

This is because; monetary policies were being lopsided because at a point, it became difficult to determine the volume of money being traded within informal sector. Also, substantial number of Nigerians operate at the ratail end-these are traders and they do not have enough trust in the commercial banks for them to keep their money there. All these affect monetary policies. Cash management for banks is another huge problem. In my previous roles in banks, I lost some of my colleagues to armed robbery attacks. More often than not, the bank had to hire helicopters when Port Harcourt was volatile whenever we wanted to move money from one branch to the other. We had to spend huge amount on helicopters, armoured vehicles etc., all this amounted to huge amount of money and the cost is expensive to average Nigerians.

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