CBN issues Fresh Order to Zenith, Access, Others on Customer Service

• The CBN has directed banks to upgrade their service offerings in line with an improved financial inclusion strategy
• It lauded the banks' efforts but stated that more needs to be done to attract more people into the system further
• It stated that the inclusion strategy helps the CBN achieve its objectives of price stability and monetary policy among other benefits

Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over 3-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market

In a bid to attract more people into the financial system, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks to raise the quality of their products and services.

Olayemi Cardoso, the CBN governor, said this at the release of the 2023 EFInA Access to Finance (A2F) Survey results in Lagos.

Significant improvement attained

The CBN governor said the Nigerian financial system has greatly increased in both scale and depth, especially in the areas of products, instruments, market expansion, and payment infrastructure, among other things.

Despite this, he asserted that stakeholders and regulators must consistently and sustainably stay abreast of these novel developments, according to The Nation report.

Represented by Chibuike Nwagerue, CBN's director of other financial institutions supervision department, Cardoso said:

“However, to achieve the target of 95 percent financial inclusion, we must all move from collaboration to concrete commitment. To that effect, I call on all Financial Inclusion implementation agencies to set up specific functions or units dedicated to financial inclusion in their various organizations.

"This we believe, will provide the necessary ownership and commitment required to achieve our collective goal,”

The governor of the CBN claimed more than 68 nations have created and are now putting into practice national financial inclusion strategies.

According to him, the plan helps the CBN to achieve its objectives of price stability and monetary policy by offering the chance for a fair distribution of financial resources to boost economic growth.

Cardoso said that an inclusive financial system that allows broad access to a wide range of formal financial services is essential for better transmission of monetary policy and the attainment of its objectives

Financial inclusion data

The CBN pointed out that research showed the North East and North West of Nigeria continue to have the highest rates of exclusion from financial services (38% and 47%, respectively), while the South West and South-South have lower rates 5% and 10%, respectively.

The 2023 results showed that 26 percent of Nigerians are financially excluded, down from 32 percent 2020. This demonstrates clear progress towards the Nigeria Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS 3.0) recommended target to reduce levels of financial exclusion in Nigeria to 25 percent by 2024.

CBN finally gives reasons behind cash scarcity in banks, ATMs, suggests solution

Legit.ng earlier reported that Cardoso said the critical flaw in the implementation of the naira redesign policy was responsible for the prevailing cash scarcity witnessed in Nigeria.

This followed continuous reports of cash scarcity witnessed across different parts of the country despite the assurance by the apex bank that there is enough cash in the system.

According to The Nation report, the CBN governor cited defects in various policies and noted that a comprehensive review initiative is ongoing.