E-Financial
Experts Identify Ways to Extend the Boundaries of Financial Inclusion Strategy
Experts at the Inclusive Finance Nigeria Conference and Awards [IFINCA] have identified the various ways the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] can extend the boundaries of financial inclusion strategy in order to realise its goal.
In a circular, the CBN had said it is not meeting any of the financial inclusion target agreed and contained in the 2012 Financial Inclusion Strategy.
IFINCA is a national policy platform on financial inclusion setup with the objective of enabling cross-pollination of best practices and breakthroughs, specifically to influence Nigeria’s financial inclusion strategy and campaign.
According to the CBN, Nigeria achieved 60.3 per cent in 2012. It declined to 58.4 per cent in 2016 against a target of 69.5 per cent, which translated to financial exclusion of about 41.6 per cent.
However, to ensure the CBN achieve its policy thrust, the analysts who spoke at IFINCA said it’s important to ensure that the under-banked and the unbanked are offered inclusive financial services.
In her keynote address at the event, Ronke Kuye, managing director/CEO of Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility [SANEF], identified the following major service areas that are required in order to deepen financial inclusion in the country.
These are the provision of sustainable job opportunities, stronger bank operation, reduction of inequality, creation of empowerment programmes, reduction of formal financial services and a boost in financial security and operation.
While addressing the theme of the event, which asked, is it time to reinvent and push the boundaries; she noted that for the financially excluded to be brought into the financial net, certain initiatives must be adopted.
Kuye informed that the CBN is making an effort to ensure that financial inclusion target is met by initiating the mobile money agents, SANEF and agency banking services. Through the initiatives, SANEF had rolled out 156,000 agents. To meet its target of 250,000 agents, SANEF is required to capture another 94,000 agents before the end of 2019.
The impediments that are slowing down the wheels of financial inclusion in Nigeria, according to her, include high cost of banking transaction, lack of attractive financial products, inadequate financial literacy programmes, poor customer service, inadequate infrastructure and cumbersome banking process.
To overcome these impediments, she explained that the industry stakeholders must close ranks and work together and create sustainable synergies that will promote financial inclusion.
“All the regulators and central service providers, agency banking such as SANEF and other developmental organization, super agents, fintech and telcos and the microfinance banks, state governments and the security agencies must work together in order to bring the Nigerians that are excluded into the financial ecosystem”, she said.
Mrs Titilola Shogaolu, Divisional CEO of Interswitch Financial Inclusion Service, while proffering on what’s still missing in financial inclusion in Nigeria, she said “there’s an existing gap despite various initiatives that have been deployed by relevant stakeholders”.
She therefore identified lack of identity card, which is needed for bank accounts opening as a barrier to digital financial inclusion. She said the following must be implemented to achieve financial inclusion in Nigeria.
These are maximum security, alignment and collaboration, provision of simple financial service, attractive benefits, building trust, financial literacy and creation of the multi-lingual channel.
Speaking on the yardsticks for measuring financial inclusion, Oluwadare Owolabi, managing director/CEO of Xpress Payments Solutions, said the results and goals of financial inclusion could only be measured through the provision of access to affordable financial service that meet people’s needs, secured financial services, the establishment of proper financial institutions that cater to the needs of the poor and the use of agency banking.
He identified “access indicator” – the number of bank branches, PoS devices, number of bank accounts and remittances, banking agents, loans and savings with the banks, level of literacy among others – as an important means to deepen financial inclusion and bring more Nigerians into the formal financial service.
Olaoluwa Awojoodu, managing director/CEO of E-Settlement and of Paycentre, in his presentation on the viability of agent banking networks stressed that the challenges facing financial inclusion must be pulled down before the CBN achieve its goals.
He listed these challenges as the unavailability of affordable banking services, threesome documentation and onboarding process, low literary level, non-presence of banks in a rural area and “negative view of banks as being overly complex”.
He said his team carried out a survey and realized that many local areas lack access to financial services, adding that 80 per cent of the banks in Nigeria are sited in Lagos while other states are suffering. “We need to tackle these barriers in order to promote financial inclusion for suitable economic development”.
Explaining how the banks can apply themselves to extend the boundaries of financial inclusion while speaking during the Future of Financial Inclusion panel sitting, the Managing Director and CEO of Precise Financial Systems, Dr Yele Okeremi noted that Nigerians are not interested in the banks but in banking services; as such, the banks must “reengineer their minds by deploying technological innovations that will make them lead the space”, he emphasized.
In similar vein, Nnaemeka Nwachukwu, Head, Executive Support and Corporate Strategy of Grooming Centre, delved into how technology is disrupting the financial inclusion space and redefining all sectors of the economy.
He said Grooming has completed the bank processor information to boost financial inclusion and that the motive is to work optimally with technology and address challenges facing financial inclusion.
“There are technological infrastructure deficiencies in the rural part of the country which we are working towards addressing by partnering with major stakeholders in the industry. We are also training some Nigerians on how to use some technology especially software to access data. But the industry needs to do more”, he noted.
The Bank of Industry (BOI), the Implementing Agency for the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria, has announced the appointment of Kuramo Capital Management as Fund Manager of the DICE Fund of Funds.
The contract signing ceremony, held in Abuja between BOI’s Managing Director and the Chief Executive of Kuramo Capital, marks a pivotal milestone in Nigeria’s accelerating commitment to empowering its technology and creative entrepreneurs.
The DICE Fund of Funds is structured to achieve a minimum total capitalisation of $170.6 million, with the Federal Government contributing an anchor commitment of $85.3 million through the iDICE Programme. Kuramo Capital is mandated to raise matching private-sector capital on a dollar-for-dollar basis. This represents one of the largest dedicated government investments in technology and creative sector startups in African history.
An Ambitious Innovation Investment Programme
The iDICE Programme represents the Federal Government of Nigeria’s most ambitious intervention in the digital economy and creative sectors. Co-financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
The programme was designed with a clear mandate: to promote entrepreneurship, drive innovation, create jobs at scale, and position Nigeria as Africa’s leading hub for the knowledge economy.
iDICE is implementing its investment mandate through a suite of complementary funds. In November 2025, the Programme achieved a landmark first milestone when it made Nigeria’s inaugural direct government investment into a private venture capital fund — a cornerstone commitment to Ventures Platform’s VP Pan-African Fund II, which closed at $64 million with co-investors including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), British International Investment (BII), Standard Bank of South Africa, and Proparco.
The signing of the DICE Fund of Funds contract with Kuramo Capital is the latest in a series of significant milestones being delivered across the iDICE Programme. As of June 2026, implementation is well advanced on all three programme pillars — skills and enterprise development, access to finance, and ecosystem enablement — with activities running in all six geopolitical zones.
Specifically, on skills & enterprise development, iDICE launched the iDICE Startup Bridge three months ago, with the first cohort of 185 founders well advanced in the week four of training.
Applications for Cohort 2 opened on the 24th of June 2026, and applications for the growth lab, the post-MVP track, expected to open in July 2026, offering growth-stage tech startups access to potential equity funding of up to $100,000.
The programme has commenced the setup and revamp of digital and creative hubs in 66 institutions (36 universities and 30 polytechnics) across the country in collaboration with NUC and NBTE. Hence working with the academia to link research and project outcomes to industry.
As part of the programme’s access to finance component, BOI has also rolled out the BOI/iDICE Debt Fund and & IsDB Murabaha Debt Fund. Both debt products have set aside a combined financing of $110 million for start-ups in the technology and creative sectors
The Dice Fund of Funds: Reaching Every Corner of Nigeria
The DICE Fund of Funds will invest across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. It will deploy capital through indirect investments in selected closed-end venture capital and micro-venture capital funds focused on technology and creative sector businesses.
The Fund has a geographic mandate that ensures that capital reaches founders in the entire country, breaking the historical concentration of venture investment in a handful of urban centres.
The Fund targets a net Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 20% and a net money multiple of 2.4x, structured with the government’s commitment as a junior tranche acting as 30% first-loss capital — a deliberate risk architecture designed to de-risk the fund structure, improve the risk-return profile for co-investors, and crowd in additional private capital.
Speaking on the Fund, Dr Olasupo Olusi, MD/CEO of the Bank of Industry had this to say – “By investing in Ventures Platform’s Fund II, and now by establishing the DICE Fund of Funds with Kuramo Capital, we are deepening the Federal Government’s objective of upscaling Nigeria’s technology and creative sectors by catalysing strategic investments in high-growth, technology-enabled enterprises.
The Bank of Industry is proud to be the executing agency driving this historic investment into the hands of Nigeria’s innovators.”.
Wale Adeosun, CEO of Kuramo Capital Management said “The DICE Fund of Funds represents a landmark moment for Africa’s venture capital ecosystem. Nigeria is demonstrating that a government can be both a serious anchor investor and a credible market-builder.
“We are honoured to be entrusted with this mandate and committed to deploying every resource at our disposal to raise the matching capital, invest wisely, and deliver returns that justify this historic confidence”.
While congratulating BOI & Kuramo Capital for this milestone on the iDICE Programme, Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima stated that “the commencement of investing by iDICE is an exciting milestone and a leap forward in the determined efforts of the Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to deliver on our vision of unleashing the full potential of Nigeria’s young people, in line with the Renewed Hope agenda”.
Benefits for Nigeria’s Start-up Founders
For Nigeria’s technology and creative entrepreneurs, the establishment of the DICE Fund of Funds — combined with iDICE’s earlier investment in Ventures Platform $64 million Fund — represents a structural shift in the availability of early-stage capital.
The days when a Nigerian founder had to depend almost entirely on foreign venture capital, or navigate a landscape with few domestic institutional investors, are changing.
By deploying capital through both direct startup investments and established venture capital fund managers, the Fund creates multiple access pathways for founders across the entire country.
Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said more than 281 million depositors across the country’s banking system are protected against bank failure, following reforms that significantly expanded deposit insurance coverage and accelerated reimbursement of customers of failed banks.
Thompson Sunday, managing director and chief executive officer, NDIC, disclosed this on Monday during the second quarter 2026 Citizens and Stakeholders’ Engagement Session organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja.
According to Sunday, the corporation currently provides deposit insurance coverage across 914 licensed financial institutions, while over 98 per cent of depositors are fully insured for their entire balances following the upward review of deposit insurance limits in May 2024.
A copy of his presentation document read, “914 licenced banks covered, every Deposit Money Banks, Non-Interest Banks, microfinance bank, Primary Mortgage Banks and Mobile Money Operators in Nigeria; more than 281 million bank depositors across all insured institutions are protected by the corporation.”
The NDIC boss said the improved coverage followed the first review of the Maximum Deposit Insurance Coverage since 2016.
Under the revised framework, insurance coverage for depositors in Deposit Money Banks increased from N500,000 to N5m, while customers of Microfinance Banks, Primary Mortgage Banks and Payment Service Banks now enjoy insurance cover of up to N2m. Mobile money subscribers are also covered up to N5m.
He said the reform resulted in 98.98 per cent of Deposit Money Bank customers being fully insured, compared with 89.2 per cent before the review, while full coverage for customers of Microfinance Banks, Primary Mortgage Banks and Payment Service Banks rose to 99.27 per cent, 99.34 per cent and 99.99 per cent respectively.
Sunday also highlighted improvements in the speed of reimbursing depositors after bank failures, saying technology had reduced payment timelines from years to days through the use of the Bank Verification Number.
He noted that the corporation has so far paid more than N54.93bn in insured deposits to Heritage Bank customers, reaching 698,040 depositors.
The NDIC boss also disclosed that in 2025 alone, the NDIC paid N4.06bn to 13,446 insured depositors and N33.59bn to uninsured depositors of failed banks.
Sunday said the reforms were reinforced by the NDIC Act 2023, which replaced the 2006 Act and strengthened the corporation’s powers to resolve failing banks, recover assets and protect depositors.
He said the law also gives depositors priority over creditors and shareholders during bank liquidation, strengthens the Deposit Insurance Fund and enhances the corporation’s asset recovery and enforcement powers.
The NDIC further disclosed that it carried out 287 on-site examinations of banks in 2025, resolved 1,196 out of 1,407 depositor complaints received during the year and continued off-site surveillance as an early warning mechanism in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It also noted that 32 banks met the March 31, 2026 recapitalisation deadline after raising more than N4.61tn in fresh capital, with the corporation supporting the CBN through capital verification, monitoring capital quality and identifying undercapitalised banks early.
Also speaking, Mr Raymond Omachi, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, said the engagement formed part of the ministry’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability and communication with citizens and key stakeholders.
According to Omachi, the platform enables the ministry to share its policies, programmes and achievements in implementing the Presidential Priorities and Ministerial Deliverables assigned to its agencies.
Omachi said, “This engagement is part of the Federal Ministry of Finance’s commitment to strengthening transparency, accountability, and communication with citizens and key stakeholders.
“As a critical component of the nation’s financial safety-net framework, the NDIC plays an important role in protecting depositors, promoting public confidence in the banking system, and contributing to the stability of the financial sector.”
Wema Bank Plc has suspended its operations on Telegram following a surge in scams involving fake accounts impersonating the bank and defrauding customers.
The bank disclosed this in an email to customers on Monday, urging them not to engage with any Telegram accounts impersonating Wema Bank.
This is coming amid Wema Bank’s effort to contain the increasing number of accounts impersonating the bank on social media in recent times.
On 7 June, Wema Bank temporarily blocked communication on its account X, citing the need to protect customers from fraudulent activities and account impersonation.
The lender urged customers to halt interactions with its ‘Wema’ and ‘Alat’ accounts on the platform until further notice.
On Monday, Wema Bank said its routine security checks revealed a spike in the rate of accounts impersonating the bank and trying to defraud its customers on Telegram.
The financial institution stated that its efforts to suspend its operations aim at protecting the interests of its customers, noting that its ALAT platform is not available on Telegram.
ALAT is the lender’s digital banking platform.
“Our routine checks and security sweeps have shown a spike in the rate of customers falling victim to scam accounts and fraudsters using fake Telegram accounts.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to proactively protect your interests, we want to remind you that Wema Bank and ALAT are NOT on Telegram,” the bank stated.
The move emphasises the growing cybersecurity threats facing Nigeria’s banking sector and other institutions in Nigeria.
Responding to the threat, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in March gave banks a three-week deadline to complete a mandatory cybersecurity self-assessment as part of efforts to strengthen the resilience of the country’s financial system.
CBN said the exercise is designed to improve risk-based supervision and strengthen regulatory oversight of cybersecurity risks across Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
“We are not on Telegram. Please do not contact us on Telegram or engage with any Telegram account claiming to represent Wema Bank or ALAT. Please do not attempt to contact us on Telegram,” Wema Bank said, urging customers to contact the bank only through its verified Instagram account, official email address, and customer service phone lines.
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