The Committee of e-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH) has stressed the need to include more Nigerians into the financial system.
The group pointed out that there has been a global consensus on the importance of financial inclusion due to its key role of bringing integrity and stability into an economy’s financial system as well as its role in fighting poverty in a sustainable manner.
It noted that it was more pertinent in the case of Nigeria as a developing nation to use financial inclusion as a platform not just for growing the financial sector but more as an engine for driving an inclusive economic growth.
One of the critical initiatives in this direction was the incorporation of financial inclusion as one of the cardinal objectives of the Nigerian Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020).
The FSS 20: 2020, according to CeBIH, represents a holistic and strategic road map and framework for developing the Nigerian financial sector into a growth catalyst that will enable Nigeria be one of the 20 largest economies by 2020.
It is against this backdrop that the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads chose the theme “Repositioning Digital Payments to achieve’ the Financial Inclusion Goals of FSS 20:2020, for its2017 annual retreat.
The retreat is expected to focus on and critically examine the progress, status and what needs to be done for the country to achieve the national financial inclusion goals of achieving 80 per cent inclusion such as access to finance, insurance services and plans by the year 2020.
The retreat, which has over the years been a meeting point for assessment of the industry and charting the course of the industry’s direction by for all stakeholders in the Nigerian payment industry is scheduled to hold from the 23rd – 24th November 2017 at the Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The opening session of the retreat is expected to be declared open by the Deputy Governor, Operations, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Bayo Adelabu, with a keynote address by the Chairman of SecureID Limited, Mr. Dotun Suleiman, among others.
Speaking on the forthcoming retreat, the Chairman of CeBIH and Chief Digital Officer of Alat, Mr. Dele Adeyinka expressed optimism that the retreat will go a long way in recommending ideas towards achieving the financial inclusion objectives of the FSS 20:2020 as participants will gain insights to principles that have aided financial inclusion in different climes across the globe.
