Why financial inclusion is important to SMEs for economic growth-WSBI

The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) has restated the importance of financial inclusion to Small business owners, including Nigerian women, youths and farmers, which would eventually fuel the country’s economic recovery and growth.

In a bid to achieve this feat, WSBI recently organised a program themed, “Scale2Save”, a six-year programme in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation aimed at establishing the viability of low-balanced savings accounts and unravelling the extent to which savings help vulnerable people in society to boost their financial wellbeing.

This Scale2Save financial inclusion knowledge-sharing event was attended by key financial stakeholders across the country.

For instance, the Scale2Save Programme Director, Weselina Angelow, who delivered the keynote address, highlighted the importance of stakeholders’ knowledge sharing events such as this towards Nigeria’s quest for inclusive growth and economic development.

According to her, “As we intensify efforts to improve financial inclusion, it is important that all stakeholders are a part of knowledge and insight-based discourse as this to improve on their processes and make informed financial inclusion decisions.”

Reiterating the commitment of Scale2Save and how the programme is impacting its members as well as other stakeholders, Angelow, stated that the mission of Scale2Save is to support financial inclusion initiatives to help millions of Nigerian youths, women and farmers.

“We focus on adding value to all stakeholders along the service value chain by empowering our financial service provider partners to become savings-driven, customer-centric institutions,” she said.

Commenting on the need to deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria, the Chief Operating Officer, Nigerian Microfinance Platform, Adetunji Afolabi, noted that attention has been focused on credit, however, to attain a desirable level of inclusion, savings must be prioritised among Nigerians.

“In Nigeria, what we see is a situation where people are averse to savings. This is partly due to the fact that financial service providers pay so much attention to credit. While that is good for business, it is important to now tilt towards inclusive savings to reap the long-term benefits that adequate financial inclusion offers.

“Attaining this inclusion level will require all players and policymakers to devise ways to incentivise savings to be able to get more people on board,” Afolabi said.

The WSBI’s 2019 financial service provider survey reveals that attitudes to financial inclusion and low-value savings among financial service providers in Nigeria and other key markets in Africa are being significantly transformed as they have intensified their focus on customers, targeting different groups with tailored accounts and savings products.

Despite the significant progress recorded so far, stakeholders believe that there is still a long way to go to attain a satisfactory level of financial inclusion.

Confirming this, the Head of Corporate, LAPO MfB, Dorcas Thorpe said, “Beyond bringing excluded Nigerians into the formal financial sector, there is also the need to focus on improving the saving culture. To do this, we must provide access to the people at the base of the pyramid to ensure the convenience of adoption and consistent saving culture.

“It is equally important to ensure that you incentivise these people. That way they have more reasons to choose the formal sector ahead of the informal sector they are used to”, she said.