Determinants of Financial Exclusion in North-Western Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of financial exclusion (FE) in the North West region of Nigeria with particular reference to Sokoto State. To achieve this, a well-structured face to face questionnaire was used by 9 research assistants to collect data from a sample of 415 respondents arrived at using Slovin's (1960) formula from a population of 1,886,250 adults excluded from financial services in Sokoto as at December 2018. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. The findings reveals that men within the age bracket of 18-36 years are the most excluded from financial services in the study area and are mostly with no formal education. Also revealed from the analysis is that income level, internet accessibility, insecurity, proximity to banks, lack of confidence, and documentation are the major factors militating against the reduction in the level of FE in Nigeria. Thus the study recommended that there is the need for government to provide jobs to people within the age bracket of 18 – 36 years. There is the need for government to enhance educational system in remote areas and employment realistic approaches to curving insecurity ravaging the country. Banks should embark on the creation of more branches in remote areas and should reduce the documentation bottleneck for opening an account.