‘Financial inclusion key to lifting 100m Nigerians out of poverty’

By adopting financial inclusion strategy to complement the Federal Government’s poverty alleviation goal, no less than 100 million Nigerians can be taken out out of poverty in the next 10 years, 
   
The Chief Executive Officer, First Bank, Adesola Adeduntan, who spoke in Lagos recently, noted that already, the bank has over 36,000 agents through which the institution expresses its commitment and passion to broadening opportunities and access to financial services for every Nigerian.

He added that those targeted included Nigerians within the low income segment and those with little or no access to financial services.He said: “As a country, we have a high proportion of Nigerians who do not have access to financial services and that prompted the Central Bank of Nigeria to set financial inclusion target for the entire country as part of its developmental objective. Having been in the country for the past 125 years, we have identified the gaps in the environment and we believe we have the resources to profitably exploit the gap.”

He added that the bank is set out to assist the country to promote financial inclusion policy and address hunger. “Indeed the higher the number of people that are able to support their immediate financial needs, the lower the number that would fall prey to the popular saying that an idle man is the devil’s workshop,” he explained.

On his part, Deputy Managing Director, FirstBank, Gbenga Shobo stated that 768 local governments in all the states of Nigeria have been covered with over 120 million transactions recorded.Head, Financial Inclusion Services, FirstBank, Ugwueke Abednego stated that awards were given to 37 agents with 31 of them at state level while five were at regional level and the overall winner at the national level. 

According to him, “we believe our agents are making impacts in the various communities where they live and do business. We recognize the huge opportunities that exist in impacting the lives of people and helping bring them out of poverty and our agents are playing that role in their various communities.”