EFInA wins Financial Inclusion Innovation Award at IFIC

Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) has won the first Financial Inclusion Innovative Award at the International Financial Inclusion Conference 2022.

EfINA, an organisation that promotes inclusive financial system in Nigeria, was presented the award by Pauline Tallen, minister of Women Affairs, at the maiden Financial Inclusion Awards organised by IFIC in Abuja.

The Financial Inclusion Awards was a feature of the International Financial Inclusion Conference 2022 organised by the National Financial Inclusion Governance Committee headed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in recognition of digital financial services (DFS) ecosystem actors contributing to the advancement of financial inclusion in the country.

“Over the years EFInA has through tireless and consistent work remained the rallying point for data and Innovation on Financial Inclusion in Nigeria,” according to Isaiah Owolabi, CEO of EFInA. “This award helps us validate all innovative strategies we have implemented since the launch of the National Financial Inclusion 2012 strategy to get us to 51% of Nigerians served by the formal financial system.”

“EFInA is committed to supporting key stakeholders to leverage data to accelerate the impact of their financial inclusion intervention’. The dashboard highlights the trend and sets the stage for the launch of the new National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2022-2024,” Owolabi added.

With the theme “Financial Inclusion for all: Scaling Innovative Digital Models,” the conference brought together delegates, experts, and speakers from within and outside the country to examine the challenges, gaps, and opportunities to identify concrete solutions and interventions that would fast track the achievement of the Nation’s Financial Inclusion objectives, the statement said.

Read also: Five strategies to help Nigeria meet financial inclusion target of 95%

“The processes for the selection of winners for the International Financial Inclusion Awards 2022 was conducted satisfactorily in line with the documented terms of reference and award framework,” Femi Osinubi, Partner and Head of Advisory Services for PwC Nigeria said. “We can all be confident that the winners who would be announced here tonight emerged through a fair and objective process validated by PWC.”

As part of the conference’s strategic activities, EFInA launched the National Financial Inclusion Dashboard on its website, which tracks the National Financial Inclusion 2020 targets, and participated in a panel session titled “Deepening digital financial services adoption and usage” to share innovative digital financial inclusion models that can help women, youth, and low-income Nigerians adopt digital financial services.