Rwanda's Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has said that building a strong financial ecosystem is critical to contributing to overall economic resilience, urging members of the financial sector to play a proactive role in Rwanda's economic transformation journey.
He was presiding over the launch of the Finscope Survey 2024, a study that assesses how financially Rwandans are included.
The study, conducted by Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR), revealed that more Rwandans, 96 per cent, or 7.9 million, now have access to any form of financial products or services, 3 percentage points increase over 2020-2024.
"As more people access formal financial services, the economy becomes more stable and resilient," he said, adding that encouraging formal savings channels and promoting responsible borrowing practices can further enhance financial inclusion and contribute to economic growth.
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Ngirente indicated that financial inclusion is globally positioned as an enabler of other developmental goals.
"It is featured as a target in eight of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. It is also a key driver of sustained and balanced economic growth which helps reduce income inequality and poverty," he remarked.
Global efforts to promote financial inclusion, he added, have resulted in significant progress, highlighting World Bank financial inclusion statistics which indicated that 76 per cent of adults globally had access to financial services by 2021.
"This represents a very good increase of 25 percentage points from 2011 when only 51% had access to financial services," the premier said.
Formal financial inclusion - those who have access to services offered by banks, pension, insurance, savings and credit cooperative societies (SACCOs), and microfinance institutions - in Rwanda grew by 15 percentage points to 7.8 million.
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Ngirente recognised the role of the Government in implementing what he called "a series of measures to ensure that the dividends of economic growth reach even the most vulnerable members of our society."
To achieve this, he noted, Rwanda has expanded the bank branch network, introduced priority sector lending schemes, promoted self-help groups and savings culture, as well as advanced mobile money services.
"As a result, the reach and impact of financial inclusion have experienced remarkable growth in recent years," the Prime Minister observed, adding that technology has equally played a major role in expanding the reach of financial services.
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"The mobile money ecosystem, in particular, has catalysed a transformative shift in the landscape of financial inclusion," he said, adding the government has worked tirelessly to establish robust digital infrastructure at the grassroots level, ensuring universal access to convenient, secure, and affordable digital payment solutions.
The Prime Minister encouraged financial services providers to continue expanding access to financial services through innovative product development, with a particular focus on reducing costs for low-income customers.
He also urged financial service providers to strengthen their systems for detecting financial crimes and identifying illegal or fraudulent transactions, saying this will play a key role in safeguarding the clients' money.
