By; NIYI OGUNGBOLA, Abeokuta
The Ogun State Government has assured stakeholders in the nation’s financial sector, that it would work assiduously with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to ensure the successful implementation of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, designed to provide easy access to financial services for adult Nigerians.
Secretary to the State Government, Barr. Taiwo Adeoluwa gave the assurance at the inaugural meeting of the Financial Inclusion State Steering Committee (FISSCO), held at the Abeokuta Branch of the CBN.
Commending the CBN for its unrelenting efforts at promoting the vision of financial inclusion, Adeoluwa assured that government would deploy all machineries to ensure seamless implementation in the State.
‘’You can count on Ogun State Government’s support for this laudable initiative. Our Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including Local Governments are highly motivated to combine efforts to drive the process. We only urge CBN and the Committee to take into cognisance, local circumstances and peculiarities and imbue the implementation templates with flexibilities, to accommodate them,’’ the SSG said.
He noted that since the launch of the programme in 2012, there had been clear indications that it had witnessed significant progress, adding that the inauguration of the State Steering Committee would further boost the implementation, especially in the grassroots, before the target date.
Speaking earlier, the Branch Controller of the Bank, Mr. Babatunde Amao said the initiative was aimed at reducing the number of adult Nigerians, excluded from accessing financial services from the current 43.6 percent to 20 percent by year 2020.