Africa over the years has been the continent with the highest number of individuals living in poverty. Nigeria with over 180 million people is said to have over 70% of the population living in poverty despite the growing size of the economy. A major driver of the wide disparity between the growing economy of underdeveloped states and increasing number of poor citizens is financial exclusion of a larger proportion of the citizens.
The government, NGO’s and other stakeholder institutions had over the years adopted a push approach thereby increasing the supply of financial activities incentives targeted to the segment to drive financial inclusion thereby making policies, funds, models and licenses to make the financial sector attractive to the excluded. However, there are minimal efforts to understand the behaviors and orientation of the excluded.
A major challenge to the effectiveness of efforts to drive financial inclusion had been around the translation of the policies and activities to relatable tips by the excluded coupled with the high cost of onboarding as well ensuring continual use of the financial system.