By Juliet Umeh
The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah Ahmad yesterday said financial inclusion in Nigeria has improved significantly.
According to him, the country has achieved 64 per cent of the vision.
Ahmad disclosed this in Lagos at a summit by the Business day Limited, publisher of the Business day newspaper with a theme: ‘The Future of Payment and Fraud’.
In her keynote address, the Deputy Governor of CBN said: “While financial inclusion continues to improve, Nigeria is currently at 64 percent.
The CBN has set additional target and that is to achieve 95 percent by 2024.
“Financial technology and digital banking are increasingly disrupting traditional banking and opening innovative avenues of distributing and delivering financial services.”
To manage risks involved in digital payment, she called for enabling competition in Fintech sector so as to facilitate digital financial services more.
She said: ‘Therefore, policy direction focus will further innovation through investment, licensing new participants while clearifying and refining the regulatory frameworks in other to identify, calibrate and manage the emerging risks by increasing strength building in the financial system.
“Studies show that Nigeria regulatory landscape of the payment system is well developed, more work however must be done in implementing these regulatory frameworks particularly establishing full engagements.
“This is absolutely required to harness the benefits of digital financial services while addressing the risks posed by leveraging new technology and business delivery.
She added that payment system transformation will play a key role in meeting aspiration wide spectrum of stakholders in the financial system mechanism and customers will enjoy more efficient services at more favourable prices.
Meanwhile in his opening remarks, Publisher/CEO, BusinessDay, Mr. Frank Aigbogun, said: “We have seen significant growth in infrastructure roll-out that enables digital financial payment. We have also seen growth in digital payment adoption.
“We are thankfully seeing considerable innovation as well. And innovation is not just a puzzle word any more, for those who seek to thrive and survive; innovation is something that we can no longer play with
Aigbogun added: “Since the advent of GSM technology, payment ecosystem in Nigeria has done impressively. It has evolved through cash, cheques, then cards, digital payment and now has moved into the era of digital wallet, contactless payment platforms as well as blockchain technology.”
Vanguard News Nigeria