The Oyo State Government on Thursday pledged its readiness to support the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in actualising the 80 per cent financial inclusion rate by year 2020.
Alhaji Olalekan Alli, the Secretary to the State Government, made the pledge while declaring open the inaugural meeting of Financial Inclusion State Steering Committee (FISSCO) meeting held at the CBN Office in Ibadan.
Alli commended the CBN for recognising the importance of the state government in addressing the critical issue of financial inclusion that has continued to assume a global dimension.
“It is very important for every stakeholder to contribute to the success of this laudable initiative to further advance the economy of Nigeria as well as well-being of the people.
“Globally, policy makers have turned their attention to financial inclusion as a veritable tool of development and have therefore seen it as a development priority.
“The relevance of the attention is the realisation that financial inclusion can help poor households improve their lives and spur economic activity.
“ The CBN and other financial institutions should strengthen cooperative and thrift societies as well as other associations to enable wider access to capital by stakeholders.
“Such would also help neighborhood industries to further expand their coast and enrich our country’s economy.
“ This will facilitate the actualisation of the target of 80 per cent financial inclusion by the year 2020,’’ he said.
Alli called on members of FISSCO to take the assignment as a call to service, urging them to invest their time and resources to the cause for the benefit of the people.
Earlier, Mr Mustafa Olatinwo, the Branch Controller of CBN in Ibadan, said the initiative was targeted at ensuring that 80 per cent or more of the adult population have access to financial services.
“The Nigeria National Financial Inclusion Strategy was launched to reduce the percentage of adult Nigerians excluded from access to financial services from 46.3 per cent in 2010 to 20 per cent in 2020,’’ he said.
Olatinwo stated that the cross-cutting and diverse nature of the targeted services require collaborative efforts by stakeholders in the financial sector, especially at the grassroots.
He called on members of the committee to support the state level arrangement in order to achieve the objectives.
