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- Says bank accounts alone cannot lift citizens out of poverty
- Seeks affordable credit for women, youths, small businesses
By Beifoh Osewele
Despite the rapid expansion of mobile banking and financial technology, nearly 29 million Nigerian adults remain completely excluded from the formal financial system, the Director of Financial Services at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Odunayo Ani, has said.
She also warned that Nigeria’s growing number of bank accounts masked a deeper crisis, as millions of citizens still lacked affordable credit, emergency savings and the financial capacity to improve their lives or grow their businesses.
She spoke as a panellist on day two of the Institute of Change Management (ICM) Annual Conference 2026 in Lagos.
Speaking on “Inclusive Growth in a Changing Economy: Expanding Opportunities through Financial and Economic Inclusion,” Ani said Nigeria must move beyond merely opening bank accounts to creating genuine opportunities for citizens to earn, save, invest and build wealth.
Citing the 2023 Access to Financial Services Survey by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, she said 26 per cent of Nigerian adults – about 28.9 million people – remained outside the formal financial system.
Even among those with access, she said financial security had deteriorated sharply. According to her, only 16 per cent of Nigerian adults were financially healthy in 2023, down from 28 per cent in 2020, while 84 per cent ran out of money at some point during the year.
She said most Nigerians could also not raise emergency funds within one week to meet the cost of a medical crisis or another urgent need.
Ani said the figures exposed the difference between owning a bank account and having the financial strength to save, invest, obtain affordable credit or survive an emergency.
“Having a bank account does not necessarily mean having economic opportunities. The account gives you access, but what matters is whether you can use that access to save, invest, borrow, grow a business or improve your livelihood,” she said.
She said those excluded were not mere statistics but farmers, traders, young people, families and small business owners who contributed daily to the economy but lacked the financial tools needed to prosper.
Many, she added, still depended on informal savings schemes such as ajo and esusu or borrowed from informal lenders at prohibitive interest rates.
Ani identified distance, documentation requirements, high costs and the digital divide as the four major barriers preventing millions of Nigerians from accessing formal financial services.
She said banks and other financial institutions remained largely concentrated in urban areas, forcing many rural residents to travel long distances, often on poor roads and at considerable cost, to obtain basic services.
According to her, documentation requirements also excluded people without utility bills, Bank Verification Numbers, National Identification Numbers or other identification documents.
She added that high bank charges, minimum-balance requirements, poor network coverage, limited access to smartphones, low digital literacy and fear of fraud had made formal financial services difficult or unattractive to many low-income earners.
Ani acknowledged that mobile money, point-of-sale agents and fintech platforms had brought services closer to millions of Nigerians.
She said the number of banking agents rose from 83,560 in 2019 to about 1.92 million in 2024, spreading across all 774 local government areas and helping to open more than 19 million accounts.
She, however, cautioned that access was only the first step.
“A woman may have a bank account and still be unable to obtain an affordable loan. A young person may have a digital wallet and still lack the skills or income to build a sustainable livelihood. A business may accept digital payments and still struggle to obtain funding or reach larger markets,” she revealed.
Ani said genuine economic inclusion required affordable business loans, financial and digital literacy, access to markets, employable skills, insurance and deliberate opportunities for women and young people.
She described micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as the backbone of the Nigerian economy, accounting for 96.9 per cent of businesses, 87.9 per cent of the workforce and 46.32 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
According to her, small businesses need more than bank accounts; they require affordable financing to buy equipment, meet working-capital needs and take advantage of emerging opportunities.
Drawing from her experience at NIMASA, Ani cited the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund as an example of how businesses could be constrained by the absence of a clear route to finance.
She said the fund remained undisbursed for more than two decades while Nigerian shipowners struggled to raise money to acquire vessels.
According to her, more than 60 shipowners applied almost immediately after the Federal Government authorised NIMASA to open the fund to qualified operators.
“The demand had always been there. What had been missing was a clear financing route,” she said.
Ani, who is also President of the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association Nigeria, expressed concern that only 47 per cent of women had bank accounts, compared with 58 per cent of men.
She attributed the gender gap largely to low or irregular incomes, the distance and cost of reaching banks and difficulties obtaining the required documents.
Drawing from her work with women in shipping, logistics and trade, Ani said she had encountered many women with viable businesses and the determination to expand but without adequate finance.
She argued that supporting women-owned businesses was not merely a social responsibility but a sound economic decision, noting that available lending data showed lower default rates among women-led enterprises.
Ani urged banks, regulators and other institutions to stop measuring financial inclusion solely by the number of accounts opened.
She said attention should be paid to whether customers actively used the accounts and whether the services helped them to save, access credit, withstand emergencies or expand their businesses.
She also called for transparent charges, reliable transaction tracking and effective complaint-resolution channels, warning that one hidden fee or unresolved failed transaction could destroy a customer’s trust and drive the person back to cash and informal alternatives.
Describing inclusion as a change-management issue, Ani said institutions must clearly explain the purpose of reforms to employees and partners, introduce changes in a deliberate sequence and regularly measure their impact.
She said economic transformation would only be meaningful when farmers, traders, women, young people and small businesses were given genuine opportunities to participate and prosper.
“The future will not favour the economies that change the fastest. It will favour those that ensure that a larger number of people are equipped to participate in that change,” she said.
The Institute of Change Management is a professional body committed to advancing change-management practice, strengthening institutional capacity and equipping professionals and organisations to manage transformation effectively.
The two-day ICM Annual Conference 2026 brought together business leaders, policymakers, financial experts and change-management professionals to examine how individuals and organisations could respond to technological, economic and workplace disruptions.
The conference, themed “Unleashing Change, Accelerating Impact: Harnessing Transformation to Drive Personal Growth and Business Excellence,” featured keynote presentations and panel discussions on artificial intelligence, continuous learning, diversity and inclusion, taxation, governance, financial services and sustainable investment.
