About 58.3 million Nigerians now utilise banking channels or services to manage their finances.

This is according to the latest Access to Financial Services in Nigeria (A2F) 2023 report released by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA).

In the EFInA report, the individuals representing 52% of the adult population of the country reflect a marginal uptick from the 51% recorded in 2020, demonstrating a gradual but steady expansion of banking penetration across the country.

It further noted that approximately 6m adults opened a bank account for the first time between 2021 and 2023.

However, this growth is offset by around 2m adults who could be categorised as lapsed bank account holders, resulting in a net growth of around 4m adults.

The report tagged: "Unlocking Insight to Accelerate Financial and Economic Inclusion", highlighted the usage patterns within the banking sector such as; person-person, and point of sales.

Principally, there are two forms of exclusion explored in the A2F survey due to the nature of the Nigerian financial landscape. First is financial exclusion (no access or use of any financial services) and the second is formal exclusion (no access or use of any formal financial services).

The A2F access identifies and categorises Nigerians into distinct groups such as; formally included without a transactional account (12.2m), informal only (10.7m), and financially excluded (28.9m).

According to the report, factors such as income constraints, geographical and cost barriers, choice exclusion, preference for cash transactions were identified.