Jigawa State government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced on Friday a financial inclusion partnership scheme to encourage and promote economic independence for people of the state, especially the poor.
Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Adamu Fanini, made this known in a statement in Dutse.
The statement, signed by the SSG’s Spokesperson Alhaji Isma’il Ibrahim, said the CBN Jigawa branch had inaugurated a 14-member Financial Inclusion Steering Committee to drive the process in the state.
The SSG appreciated the apex bank’s laudable initiative aimed at reducing national adult financial exclusion rate in Nigeria to 20 per cent by the year 2020.
He stated that “the Jigawa Government appreciates CBN for recognising the importance of the state government in addressing this critical issue of financial inclusion that has now taken frontal position in global development agenda
“One of the ways to assist the masses to attain economic independence, especially those at the bottom of the pyramid, is to provide them adequate access to financial services in a convenient and affordable manner.”
Fanini commended the creation of common platform christened “Financial Inclusion State Steering Committee”, saying it would enable identified stakeholders to contribute toward addressing issues that surrounded the implementation of the inclusion strategy and achieve enhanced access of all state residents.
The SSG disclosed that for the 2018 operating year, “it is expected that the state should include new savings customers and credit customers, and this will form the focus of the government’s struggle in the next months.”
He explained that among the terms and reference of the committee were: to identify the gap in achieving the implementation of the strategy’s outreach, undertake an assessment of the particular financial inclusion challenges in the state.
The committee also had the mandate to provide workable financial services expansion solutions and document same for implementation by stakeholders like bank insurance companies, capital market providers and develop business cases.