Bullion
Keywords
Employment, Poverty, Gross Domestics Product (GDP), Agriculture
Abstract
Contrary to the widely held opinion that it is unthinkable that the Nigerian economy would have grown at the rate it did in the last decade and yet the incidence of poverty persisted, even grew higher, growth could actually occur without increasing employment or reducing poverty. This is possible if the economy were allowed to grow without a conscious effort to direct the direction of growth to the policymakers to make concerted efforts to smoothen the path of growth and introduce policies that will make growth pro-poor programmes is the one being currently pursued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, financial inclusion. Financial inclusion strategies should form one of the core components of such developmental policies aimed at making growth inclusive to reduce poverty. It simply implies enabling access for economic agents, especially, those on the lower wrung of the income ladder. Financial inclusion strategies aim at increasing the number of people with accounts in banks and other formal financial institutions - saving, current and credit. It also pursues the promotion of formal payment media, including cheques, ATM cards, internal payment, mobile payments and others by the populace. There is evidence that people who are financially included tend to be more productive consume more and invest more.
Publication Title
CBN Bullion
Issue
3 - 1
Volume
36 - 37
Recommended Citation
Mbutor, Mbutor O. and Al-Hassan, Uba, I.
(2013)
"Nigeria 2002- 2012: high economic growth rate, high incidence of poverty, why?,"
Bullion: Vol. 36:
No.
3, Article 2.
Available at:
https://dc.cbn.gov.ng/bullion/vol36/iss3/2