Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of E-Settlement Olaoluwa Awojoodu has said his company has created financial accessibility and inclusion for millions of Nigerians through its agent network.
“There is no way you want to provide financial accessibility to someone and the person has to travel all the way to banks or go through any form of hardship to get financial services,” Awojoodu said during an Instagram live interview with The Guardian.
“We currently have over 60, 000 agents and the plan is to have about 200000 within the next few months.
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“For E-Settlement we are solving two major problems one of them is primarily getting people out of poverty by creating jobs and another major side of the problem solving is providing access to financial services.”
Awoojodu said E-Settlement has aided financial accessibility in Nigeria both in the rural and urban area as banks cannot afford to open branches or cite Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in every community in the country.
He said the organisation is currently working on a foundation called Access Point which will also create solutions to financial accessibility in communities across Nigeria.
Awoojodu noted that financial inclusion is the most important part of solving the poverty crisis in the country. He explained that as long as Nigeria’s economy is still cash-driven agent network would continue to solve crucial financial problems in the society.
He said agent network has played a major role in the country’s financial system by enabling low-income individuals in the country to access financial services such as micro-savings, microcredit, micro insurance, digital payment and remittance.
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Awoojodu mentioned illiteracy, lack of financial education, diversity of culture as challenges they face while providing financial services in rural communities in the country.
He said the agent network provided a solution during the COVID-19 lockdown by making sure that people could carry on with their financial transaction despite the unavailability of financial institutions.
