CBN, Bill Gates To Collaborate On Financial Inclusion
B Patience Ikpeme
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have agreed to deepen collaboration on financial inclusion in Nigeria.
To firm up the agreement, the CBN has pledged to work with the BMGF and other development partners to come up with solutions that will drive access to finance.
This is contained in a statement issued by the CBN yesterday after a strategic meeting between the CBN and the BMGF in Abuja.
Acting Governor of the CBN Mr. Folashodun Shonubi disclosed that “though much progress had been made in various aspects of financial inclusion, some challenges still remained in attaining the desired level of financial inclusion in Nigeria”.
He therefore called for greater partnership between the Bank and the BMGF.
In his remarks, Mr Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said “the foundation’s focus areas for continued engagement in Nigeria include health, agriculture and financial services”.
Mr. Gates said he was happy that his organization “was catalyzing developmental action in Nigeria”.
He noted that there were still challenges and gaps, but he was optimistic “that the country would witness better outcomes given the new economic and monetary policies currently in place in Nigeria”.
The CBN in the statement said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) “has supported financial inclusion in Nigeria since 2012 and has been a strategic partner in driving innovation to reach excluded segments of Nigeria’s population with financial products and services”.
The partnership the CBN added “has brought about strategic initiatives such as the Nigeria Financial Services Maps, a gateway for geospatial mapping of access points, the development of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2012 and a revision in 2018, research into financial exclusion, scoping of digital financial services in Nigeria, and many more activities that help accelerate access to financial services”.
