Key questions this article answers:
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In 2010, Nigeria and Ghana were at par on financial exclusion rates. Nigeria’s 46% and Ghana’s 44% of adults didn’t have access to financial services. Yet today, Ghana has a 4% exclusion rate compared to Nigeria’s 36%. Why has Ghana progressed faster than Nigeria?
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What key regulatory manoeuvres helped Ghana remove access barriers for its most financially vulnerable citizens?
Between 2010-2021, the population of financially excluded (persons lacking access to basic financial services, whether formal or informal) Ghanaian adults shrunk by -88%, while Nigeria’s grew by 3%.
These figures are close to embarrassing.
How did a nation less than a quarter of Nigeria’s size (that can barely get jollof rice right) become more successful at tackling financial inclusion?
To be fair, Nigeria’s rapidly growing population (2.4% vs Ghana: 2.0%) certainly doesn’t help matters. While we’ve seen some progress in narrowing the proportion of financially excluded
