Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has made a case for the pursuit of further milestones in financial inclusion, saying it’s an ideal avenue for economic empowerment.
The premier was yesterday speaking at the opening of the 11th Alliance for Financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum 2019 in Kigali. The summit pays special attention to women and youth.
Ngirente said that the country has recorded significant progress in financial inclusion in recent years, moving from 21 per cent in 2008 to 89 per cent in 2016.
Globally, he said, more effort is needed to include the over 1.7 billion people who are financially excluded.
The world’s unbanked population dropped from 2.5 billion in 2011 to 1.7 billion in 2017, the premier said.
"Despite increasing financial inclusion, a big proportion of youth continue to be financially excluded,” he added.
Statistics show that in Sub-Saharan Africa, over 60 per cent of the population fall below the age of 25, and most of them are less likely to have a bank account compared to adults.
Therefore, Ngirente said, there is a great need to empower our youth to access useful and affordable financial products and services.
Among the drivers of financial inclusion, he said, include financial literacy as well as the creation of digital channels to avail financial services.
"Financial literacy could be the starting point in this process since many of the youth have a keen interest in digital channel, digital financial services accessed and delivered through their mobile phones, could be the solution to banking them,” he said.
Citing Rwanda’s example, he said that in 2008 the Government worked with industry players to roll out initiatives such as Savings and Credit Co-operatives at every sector.
"This programme was put in place to make financial products and services such as credit, savings and payments available throughout the country, especially in rural areas to increase the level of financial inclusion,” he said.
Rwanda has further invested a significant amount of efforts and resources in establishing ICT infrastructure as a means to facilitate financial inclusion, he added.
"In the financial sector, digital financial services were given emphasis to increase the level of financial inclusion. Some of these services, including mobile financial services and internet banking services, were introduced and are now well operational,” he said.
He called on financial sector players to pick interest in ensuring that citizens are financially included and have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs.
Central bank governor John Rwangombwa said that, with women making up over half the population, having access to quality and affordable financial products and services is a foundation for efforts to promote gender equality.
"World Bank data shows that in 2018 female population was 49.5 per cent of the world’s total population, whereas in Rwanda, women are 50.9 per cent of the total population of approximately 12.7 million. These numbers imply that strong measures must be taken to create a conducive environment, for women to participate and benefit from all development opportunities,” he said.
Alfred Hannig, the Executive Director of Alliance for Financial Inclusion, said that financial inclusion is also an opportunity for sector players, noting that it adds to their relevance in the market.
editor@newtimesrwanda.com