| Data & Financial Inclusion |    2712 VIEWS  |
| Data & Financial Inclusion | |
| 2712 VIEWS | |
 |
Thursday, May 30,
2019 / 03:50PM / Firstbank
Worried
by the increasing rate of the unbanked population, the Federal Government,
through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), kicked off a campaign in 2012 to
achieve 80 per cent financial inclusion of adult population by 2020.
The
CBN carried out the campaign through agency banking, mobile banking/mobile
payments, linkage models and client empowerment, to reduce financially excluded
adult Nigerians from 46.3 per cent in 2010 to 20 per cent in 2020.
According
to the CBN, the overall goal of the strategy is to promote a financial system
accessible to all Nigerian adults at an inclusion rate of 80 per cent (formal
and informal).
However,
the 2018 Access to Financial Services Survey findings, conducted by the
Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) department of CBN, showed
that 36.8 per cent Nigerian adults were still financially excluded.
This
translates to a population of 36.6 million adult Nigerians who are excluded at
the moment, with 44.1 per cent male and 55.9 per cent female.
The
survey also disclosed that the country had a total adult population of 99.6
million, with 39.8 per cent as the banked population, which translates to 39.7
million.
In
line with the apex bank’s strategy, some commercial banks have introduced
products aimed at promoting financial inclusion, educational development and
financial literacy to meet the 2020 target.
For
instance, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has since launched a couple of
innovative products such as FirstMobile, USSD, agent banking and FirstBillsPay
to enhance banking efficiency.
The
bank recently added a new scheme, FirstBank XploreFirst, a promotional campaign
aimed at rewarding its youthful customers, in line with its financial inclusion
and educational development drive.
Chuma
Ezirim, FirstBank Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, said the
six-month promo, which kicked off on October 1, 2018 and ends in May, was a
FirstBank savings account variant designed specifically for students between 18
and 29 years.
He
said a minimum of N1, 000 was required to open the account and account holders
were required to maintain a minimum balance of N200.
To
participate in the promo, Ezirim said XploreFirst customers were encouraged to
save or maintain a minimum amount of N10, 000 in their accounts during the
promo period to be eligible for the scholarship raffle draw, and that
incremental deposits of N10, 000 in the account entitled the account holder to
multiple tickets for the raffle draw.
To
this end, a total of 198 winners emerged from the promo with 18 account holders
(three from each of the six geopolitical zones) rewarded with scholarships of
N150, 000 at the final raffle draw totaling N2.7 million.
The
18 account holders who won the N2.7 million scholarships were Chukwuebuka
Ezugba, Oluwatunmise Olorunfemi and Michael Offiong for Lagos zone.
North-Central:
Patrick Oginni, Aliyu Muhammad, Confidence Umeh; North-East West: Razaq
Ibrahim, Habiba Ibrahim, Abdullahi Mannir; South-East: Victoria Umo, Armstrong
Akoma and Deborah Fubara.
South-South
winners were Woyingi Kunoun, Shulammite Onyigabor, Stephen Okolo; South-West:
Adenike Adekale, Dorcas Agbakwuru and Oghogho Onoigboria.
Also,
the bank rewarded 180 account holders with N5, 000 (N900, 000) airtime as
consolation prizes, five from each of the six geopolitical zones.
Ezirim
said the initiative was targeted at the youth, especially those in tertiary
institutions and the informal sector to enhance savings culture and drive
financial inclusion across the country.
He
noted that the initiative would be sustained by the bank in the future in line
with the CBN financial inclusion mandate.
Also
speaking, Olufemi Odumuboni, the bank’s Head, Youth/Women Banking, said the
promo dynamics were centred at making people to engage in financial discipline.
Odumuboni
said winners were selected based on certain principles that made them eligible
to qualify for the draw.
He
explained that apart from the N2.7 million set aside for the yearly
scholarships the bank had splashed about N900, 000 on customers that emerged
winners at the various monthly draws for data purchase for their mobile phones.
To
FBN Head, Retail Business & Community Banking, Mr Abiodun Famuyiwa, the
bank embarked on the initiative due to its belief in nation’s building.
“We
started this last year and the reason why FirstBank is driving this promo is
because of our belief in nation’s building.
“We
cannot build a nation without the population, youths populism consists of over
50 per cent of the population.
“And
this population of youths we are targeting is those in the campuses, which are
actually in need of some kind of support in their education, and this is one of
the driving forces of the promo,” Famuyiwa said.
He
also noted that the focus of the bank in organising the promo was to have more
of the youths in the bank’s database, because traditionally, people associated
FirstBank with old people. (NAN)
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