Financial Inclusion Policy and the Poor: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

This paper is on financial inclusion policy and the poor: Evidence from Nigeria. The main aim of the paper is to assess the financial inclusion policy implementation in Nigeria in order to determine its impact on availability, accessibility, and affordability of financial services in Nigeria. The paper adopts qualitative and quantitative approaches in the collection and analysis of data. Using a population size of 250 respondents, a census sampling technique in which all the entire population was utilized was adopted. Findings from the study show that financial inclusion has to a great extent encouraged the availability, accessibility, and affordability of financial services in Nigeria. The paper concludes that access to and affordability of financial services allows the poor to save money outside the house safely and helps in mitigating the risks that the poor faces in times of economic shocks. The paper therefore recommends that in order to remedy comprehension issues about financial inclusion, it will be important to make operating interfaces and documentation available in major Nigerian local languages (e.g., Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, etc). Again, in order to further promote use of mobile money and lessen the preference for cash, there is need to target education of the public to anchor the notion that mobile money is safe and more cost-efficient than traditional cash-in-cash out operations.