Nigeria: Experts Highlight Measures for Accelerated Financial Inclusion in Nigeria

24 April 2025
This Day (Lagos)
By Emma Okonji

Collaboration among financial service providers, telecommunication operators and tech startups, as well as conscious efforts geared at consumer awareness, have been proffered as key remedies to the challenge of financial inclusion in Nigeria.

Stakeholders that gathered for the second edition of Payment Forum Nigeria (PAFON 2.0) held recently in Lagos, suggested the remedies at the forum.

Delivering a keynote address on the theme: "Bridging the Customer Experience Gap for Financial Inclusion Using AI", Chief Executive Officer of AfriGoPay Financial Services Limited, Mrs. Ebehijie Momoh, said with 64 per cent of Nigerian adults being financial included, the country has made immense progress in that regards.

She said between 2012 till date, the country has recorded robust regulatory reforms, especially the launch of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) in 2014 making it easier to identify and track customers across different banks.

"This initiative enhanced the credibility of the financial sector and increased confidence in formal banking systems. The growth in adoption of smartphones has also helped the financial sector to leapfrog financial inclusion. Nigeria has 142.16 mobile internet subscriptions with an average consumption of ~7.04GB / month as of January 2025. If you juxtapose it to the 15.9 per cent decline in shipments of feature phones to 18.8 million units in Africa as at Q1 2024, you will understand that the uptake in smartphones has helped us a great deal," Momoh said.

In her goodwill message, MD/CEO, Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities Limited (SANEF) Limited, Mrs. Uche Uzoebo, said with progress made in accelerating financial inclusion to unbanked and under-banked communities in Nigeria, SANEF has leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the next step to advancement in financial services in the country.

Speaking during a panel session, Chairman, Lagos State Chapter of the Association of Mobile Money & Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), Mr. Ibirogba Oluwagunwa, spoke about lack of collaboration and slow institutional drive towards AI as key barriers hindering digital inclusion.

Managing Director of PalmPay, Mr. Chika Nwosu, reiterated the need to reach the consumers with simple format communication and education style.

Read the original article on This Day.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2025 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 110 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.