The number of Nigerians with accounts at regulated institutions such as a bank; credit union, microfinance institution, post office, or mobile money service provider, increased by 16% to 45% in 2021.
The global bank stated that global account ownership increased by 50% from 51% in 2011 to 76 %in 2021. Nigeria’s account ownership growth grew from 30 per cent to 45 per cent in the period under review.
The bank disclosed this in its ‘The Global Findex Database 2021; Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19,’ report. It said the overall account ownership in developing economies grew by 30 percentage points.
It stated, “Individual economies saw different rates of growth over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2021, economies such as Peru, South Africa, and Uganda; drove up the average with account ownership increases of 25% points or more.
“Uganda, in fact, saw its rate more than triple, from 20 per cent to 66 per cent. In India, account ownership more than doubled in the past decade, from 35 per cent in 2011 to 78 per cent in 2021. This outcome stemmed in part from an Indian government policy launched in 2014 that leveraged biometric identification cards to boost account ownership among unbanked adults.
“Other economies saw much smaller increases over longer periods. Pakistan, for example, grew by just 10 percentage points over the past decade, from 10 per cent in 2011 to 21 per cent in 2021. The Arab Republic of Egypt and Nigeria increased ownership by 18 percentage points and 16 percentage points, respectively—from 10 per cent to 27 per cent in Egypt, and from 30 per cent to 45 per cent in Nigeria.”
-PUNCH.
