Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday, restated the apex bank’s commitment to reduce the number of financially excluded in the country from 46.3 percent in 2011 to 20 percent in the next five years in line with Maya Declaration, which Nigeria is signatory to. Today, the proportion of adult Nigerians that are still financially excluded is about 39.5 percent or 36.9 million, according to Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EfiNA) 2014 report.
Emefiele gave the commitment in Abuja at the financial literacy and summit which was part of the activities to mark this year’s ‘Global Money Week’ -an annual international money awareness celebration. The Global Money Week affords the authorities the opportunity of engaging the children and youths in learning about how money works, the importance of savings, creating livelihoods, gaining employment, and entrepreneurship through fun and interactive activities.
Emefiele told the gathering comprising basically school children that the CBN is committed to creating an enabling environment for producing economic citizens capable of positively contributing to the country’s economic growth and development. He noted that the CBN believes that empowering Nigerians with the requisite financial knowledge and skills would give them confidence to participate in the formal system and effectively contribute to the stability of the financial system while improving their economic wellbeing.
He said, “In our collective effort to empower our teeming population of children and youths, especially those that are vulnerable, and marginalised, we must not only increase their financial capability, but also enhance the consciousness of their social and economic rights as well as improve their access to financial services appropriate to their needs and peculiar circumstances and support them to build and accumulate assets to secure their future”.
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