Nigeria is approaching its 2020 financial inclusion deadline with millions of adults still outside the formal financial system. The Central Bank of Nigeria set a goal of reducing financial exclusion to 20 per cent by 2020, while data from Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access showed that 36.6 million Nigerian adults remained financially excluded as of its 2018 survey.

For Olaolu Samuel Adesanya, then a Senior Associate at PwC, the challenge goes beyond opening more bank accounts. It is about designing financial services that people can use consistently, affordably and safely.
“For years, the question has been how to get people an account,” Olaolu said. “The harder question is how to make that account useful to a farmer who is still paid in cash.”

Olaolu explores that challenge in a paper titled Blockchain Microservices Architectures Supporting Inclusive Financial Platforms and Driving Sustainable Access to Digital Banking, written with Akindamola Samuel Akinola and Lawrence Damilare Oyeniyi.
The authors propose a modular digital banking architecture built around separate services for identity verification, payments, savings and other financial functions. Their framework considers how blockchain technology could support more transparent and auditable transaction records while allowing financial institutions to expand individual services without rebuilding an entire banking platform.

At the centre of the proposal is a broader question facing Nigeria’s financial sector: how can technology extend formal financial services to underserved populations without making those services too expensive, complex or difficult to access?
Dr Chinwe Iwu, commenting on the proposal, said its significance lies in connecting technology design with the realities of financial inclusion.

“The proposal is relevant to Nigeria because reaching people outside formal banking takes more than a new way to record transactions,” Iwu said. “Providers would need to show that an agent in a rural community can help a customer make a payment reliably, at a cost the customer understands and accepts.”
She added that any implementation should also include effective processes for correcting errors and resolving customer complaints.

“A phased pilot would give researchers and regulators a way to test the idea,” Iwu said. “I would look at continued use, failed transactions, fees and outcomes for women and rural users.”
The framework proposed by Olaolu and his co-authors is designed with those practical constraints in mind. It envisages access through Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, SMS, agent networks and local-language support alongside more conventional digital channels.

Rather than introducing every financial product at once, the authors propose beginning with foundational services such as identity verification, basic wallets and payments before expanding into more complex offerings such as credit, insurance and remittances.
“Technology does not include anyone by itself,” Olaolu said. “Inclusion has to be designed into the system from the first line of code, with the regulator, the agent and the rural customer in mind.”

That philosophy is particularly relevant in a market where smartphone access and reliable internet connectivity cannot always be assumed. A digital financial system designed primarily for high-bandwidth users risks excluding many of the same people financial inclusion initiatives are intended to reach.
The paper also places consumer protection alongside access. The authors call for clear lending terms, appropriate oversight and mechanisms for evaluating credit-scoring models for potential bias.

“Credit without guardrails is not inclusion,” Olaolu said. “A loan that traps a market trader in debt pushes her further from the financial system than she was before she borrowed.”
The emphasis reflects a wider shift in the financial inclusion debate. Success is increasingly measured not simply by the number of accounts opened, but by whether consumers can use financial products regularly, affordably and with confidence.

EFInA’s findings have also highlighted the role informal financial services continue to play in Nigeria. For Olaolu, that reinforces the need to measure digital banking initiatives against practical outcomes such as usage, affordability, rural reach and participation among women, rather than account registrations alone.
The proposed framework remains at the research and design stage, but it contributes to a broader discussion about how Nigeria can combine financial technology, regulation and consumer protection as it works to expand access to formal financial services.

Olaolu’s argument is ultimately that the next phase of digital banking should not be judged by the sophistication of its technology alone. Its success should be measured by whether people who have historically remained outside the formal financial system can use it, trust it and benefit from it.
“Inclusion should mean more than being counted,” he said. “It should mean having access to financial services that genuinely work for people’s everyday lives.”