September 29, 2020/CBN
In March 2018, the National Financial Inclusion Special Intervention Working Group (a working group under the National Financial Inclusion Governance structure) constituted a subcommittee to look into gender-related financial inclusion issues and propose recommendations for addressing the high exclusion rates among women in Nigeria. One key recommendation of the subcommittee was to develop a comprehensive framework that provides a guide and blueprint for women’s financial inclusion.
This Framework is the outcome of the gender subcommittee’s work and follow-up work by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA). It builds upon the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (Revised) (October 2018), and integrates valuable insights from the Assessment of Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria (December 2019). This Framework takes as an additional reference point Nigeria’s Sustainable Banking Principles, which promote women’s economic empowerment through a gender inclusive workplace culture in business operations and seek to provide products and services designed specifically for women. Alongside these national reference points, the Framework is based on what is considered international best practice in advancing women’s financial inclusion.
Developing a women-specific strategy stems from the recognition that it is important to treat women as a critically important and distinct customer group, rather than as a subset of a broader group, for example “vulnerable”; it recognizes also that there are specific segments within this customer group. With this perspective in mind, the Framework builds upon the 2018 National Financial Inclusion Strategy (Revised), but makes the important distinction that the 2018 Strategy is framed collectively as “women, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and people living in the most excluded regions (North East and North West),” whereas this Framework is focused entirely on women’s financial inclusion, addressing the financial inclusion of all categories of Nigerian women, young and old, throughout the country.
The Framework carves out the barriers of particular importance to women, laying out eight strategic imperatives and related recommendations with the greatest potential for addressing these barriers.
