A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shown that Nigerian banks closed 234 branches and 649 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in 2020 leading to a decline in the country’s Financial Access Score (FAS) to 4.44 last year against 4.78 in 2019.
The global financial institution disclosed this in its Financial Access Survey (FAS) 2021 Trends and Developments. IMF is known to utilise two FAS indicators to monitor an item of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to increase domestic financial institutions’ capacity to promote access to banking and financial services.
The number of commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults and the number of ATMs per 100,000 adults are the two commonly used FAS indicators. According to details from the IMF report, Nigeria experienced reductions in these two FAS indicators, among others.
For sure, the pursuit of ‘financial inclusion’ or “access to banking and financial services” is a germane global…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
