Olu Akanmu, Executive in Residence at Lagos Business School and former President of fintech giant Opay, is urging Nigeria to roll out a nationwide digital cash transfer programme that links identity to financial access—especially for underserved populations in the North and women, who remain the most excluded from the country’s financial system.
Delivering a keynote at the IFC Digital Financial Services Knowledge Exchange on May 27, 2025, Akanmu says that a digitally-delivered Government-to-Person (G2P) cash transfer model, anchored on the National Identification Number (NIN), could bring millions of Nigerians into the formal financial sector.
“Delivery of cash transfer G2P payments through the digital financial rail will bring the large mass economically excluded into the financial rail,” Akanmu tells the gathering.
Despite Nigeria hitting a 64% formal financial inclusion rate by 2023, Akanmu warns that “large exclusion challenges remain in the North and among women”—two segments of the population often left behind due to economic, geographic, and cultural barriers.
He proposes linking the 67 million Nigerians on the National Social Register to the NIN system, and opening digital financial accounts for the unbanked among them. Execution, he says, will depend on collaboration between fintechs, commercial banks, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and telecoms providers.
“CICO agents will do the cash outs,” he says, referring to Cash-In Cash-Out agents who serve as last-mile conduits for digital finance in hard-to-reach communities.
Northern Nigeria and women bear brunt of financial exclusion
Despite Nigeria hitting a 64% formal financial inclusion rate by 2023, Akanmu warns that “large exclusion challenges remain in the North and among women”—two segments of the population often left behind due to economic, geographic, and cultural barriers.
“If we fix the North and inclusion challenges of women, we would fix the challenge of financial inclusion in Nigeria,” Akanmu argues.
Citing data from the EFINA 2023 Access to Financial Services report, he reveals that 56% of Nigerian adults cite irregular income and unemployment as barriers to financial access. That number soars to 63% in Northern Nigeria. Women, in particular, are held back by mobility restrictions, lower digital literacy, and entrenched cultural norms.
Agent networks, which he sees as the backbone of grassroots financial services, are also weak where they are most needed. Akanmu notes that while 53.9% of Nigerians use financial service agents, agent presence is lowest in the North-West and North-East. In these regions, 60% of residents say there are no CICO agents near them.
“Agent presence alone is insufficient,” he says. “The services must be relevant, trusted, and tailored to local needs to drive real impact.”
Nigeria: Millions hold NIN, remain locked out of financial system
Perhaps most striking, Akanmu says, is the disconnect between identity and access: as of December 2023, 28 million Nigerian adults had a NIN but no financial account. By April 2025, NIN enrolment had risen to 118.4 million, but the financial inclusion gap remains.
Of those without financial accounts, 13 million are engaging with non-bank institutions to manage their finances, while 90% of the 15.3 million financially excluded people with NIN live in Northern Nigeria, highlighting a stark regional imbalance.
To bridge this gap, Akanmu urges policymakers to embed financial inclusion into the heart of Nigeria’s economic programmes—especially those focused on agriculture, micro and small enterprises (MSMEs), and vocational training.
“We must integrate financial inclusion into economic programmes that employ the majority of the poor and low-income,” he says.
Of those without financial accounts, 13 million are engaging with non-bank institutions to manage their finances, while 90% of the 15.3 million financially excluded people with NIN live in Northern Nigeria, highlighting a stark regional imbalance.
India offers lessons, credit access still a challenge
Drawing international comparisons, Akanmu highlights India’s success in linking identity to digital finance to drive grassroots prosperity. He calls for similar efforts in Nigeria to stimulate local economic multipliers across the country.
However, Akanmu notes that challenges remain. While digital payment adoption is growing, access to formal credit is still weak—just 6% nationally, and a meagre 1.8% in the North-West, according to EFINA.
Still, Akanmu sees hope in recent CBN regulations, including Open Banking and Global Standing Instructions (GSI), which he says enable fintechs to build smarter, alternative credit scoring systems to extend credit safely.
“Commendations to CBN on these progressive and innovative regulations,” he notes.
Path forward: Collaboration and inclusion
To accelerate progress, Akanmu calls for strong inter-agency collaboration to onboard 20 million more Nigerians into the digital financial system within three years, with a focus on women and the North.
“The government must leverage the institutional and social capital of development finance partners funding the cash transfer programme to make this happen,” he says.
“We must ensure that the short-term challenge and legacy of historical economic exclusion do not arrest the progress of financial inclusion.”
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