Hector Igbikiowubo 25 August 2015, Sweetcrude, Houston – Nigeria has achieved a number nine ranking for the country’s overall financial inclusion efforts in the 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project, FDIP, Report and Scorecard which evaluated 21 select countries.
The Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings launched the 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project, FDIP, Report and Scorecard, which evaluates access to and usage of affordable financial services.
Brookings experts John D. Villasenor, Darrell M. West, and Robin J. Lewis analyzed the financial inclusion landscape in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, and Zambia. Countries received scores and rankings based on 33 indicators spanning four dimensions: country commitment, mobile capacity, regulatory environment, and adoption.
Nigeria earned 72 percent of the total possible points to garner the top overall score. Other highlights of Nigeria’s performance metrics include:
*Tied for first place for country commitment.
*Secured 8th place for mobile capacity.
*Earned a 12th place ranking for regulatory environment.
*Ranked 10th place for adoption.
*Launched a financial inclusion strategy in 2012 and instituted a Financial Inclusion Secretariat.
*Developed an extensive set of quantifiable goals, including increasing the percentage of the adult population using formal financial services to 70 percent by 2020.
*The 2013 guidelines on agent banking enabled banks to expand beyond traditional brick-and-mortar infrastructure, and a 2014 Helix Institute survey found that agent networks have expanded rapidly.
This year’s Report and Scorecard is the first of a series of annual reports examining financial inclusion activities around the world, and it is being unveiled at a public event and webcast on Wednesday.