Driving faster financial inclusion in developing nations

Abstract

The object of research is an alternative strategy that could drive a faster achievement of higher rate of financial inclusion for developing nations. This is important as financial exclusion has been identified as one of the development inhibitors for developing nations. Most of them have made a concerted effort to drive financial inclusion but due to poor implementation and, more often than not, the wrong strategy to drive a faster inclusion, most developing nations have very high exclusion rates. This problem is examined by the case of Nigeria, one of such developing nations, which reports a dismal position of 68 % exclusion rate even after 4 years of its implementation of the strategy for financial inclusion, of 2012, for 80 % by 2020. In the course of this study, literature triangulation is used, to extract workable alternatives that were presented at discussion panels with practical knowledge of the worst indicated geo-political zones in Nigeria . According to various reports of Enhanced Financial Inclusion in Nigeria (EFInA) these are the North-east and the North-west geo-political zones. As a result of this study it is shown that the Refreshed strategy is utilising the olden system of pull strategies which has left more people, on a numeric basis, excluded than at the base year of strategy implementation. This study, therefore, recommends the push strategy, through a reorientation of the mind of the excluded, in order to drive a faster Financial Inclusion. A faster inclusion, at least faster than the rate of population growth, would produce a better financial inclusion index and truly accelerated economic growth. In the future, the proposed approach is of an empirical study of actual excluded members of the societies of the core bottleneck communities.