By Elizabeth Adegbesan
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said 74 percent of Nigerians have been covered under its financial inclusion program as at first half of 2025 (H1’25).
Disclosing this in its latest Financial Stability Report, the apex bank stated: ‘‘At end-June 2025, the percentage of financially included Nigerians stood at 74 per cent.”
The CBN’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) had a target of 95 percent overall financial inclusion by the end of 2024.
The NFIS serves as Nigeria’s principal policy framework aimed at achieving targets in credit, savings, payments, insurance, and pensions.
According to the apex bank, 69,094 new agents were on-boarded under the SANEF expansion scheme during the review period, bringing the total to 2,021,338 and increasing access points to 1,903 per 100,000 adults, to further deepening financial access nationwide.
“These achievements underscore the impact of strategic partnerships and targeted initiatives in expanding access to financial services nationwide.
“During the review period, the National Financial Inclusion Secretariat (NFIS) established a governance structure comprising a Steering Committee chaired by the Governor, a Technical Committee chaired by the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability (FSS), and four Working Groups: Products, Channels, Literacy, and Interventions.
“The Technical Committee and Working Groups focused on the following: Expansion of fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure to deepen broadband penetration in Nigeria.
“Creation of a framework for a centralised complaints management platform for policyholders to submit complaints and track resolution status by the insurance sector.
“Establishment of and planned rollout of the Open Banking Registry.
“Improved access to credit through the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets (STMA), and; Combating e-fraud through telecommunication platforms.
“The Bank advanced Digital Finance Services (DFS) adoption by linking Payment Service Providers with aggregators, enforcing monthly transaction reporting, and mandating corporate name display on digital platforms to enhance trust.
“Furthermore, the activities of the Payment Service Banks and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, USSD, deployment further expanded access, especially in rural areas.
“Consequently, in the first half of 2025, there were 69,094 new agents, bringing the total to 2,021,338, reflecting greater access to financial services.
“At end-June 2025, 83 per cent of adults with transactional accounts use DFS (up from 60 per cent in 2020).”
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