E-Financial
CBN to Create Hot Spots to for Financial Inclusion
Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that the apex bank will partner some satellite system companies to boost international telecommunication services in the country by creating hot spots.
Sanusi, who disclosed this at a meeting with a World Economic Forum Group in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the synergy would enhance implementation of financial inclusion in Nigeria.
The focus of the meeting was “Promoting Global Financial Inclusion: Overcoming Key Barriers through Public–Private Collaboration.’’
NAN reported that Sanusi identified lack of infrastructure as a major challenge to the implementation of the policy.
He said that the least expensive way of deploying products was technology, but said that the low level of internet penetration around the country remained a problem.
He also said that excessive reliance on telephone companies in the country had its problems “because in this country, telecommunication companies make a lot of money from Small Message Service (SMS)”.
“But, the incentives to invest in order to have a bandwidth are limited unless it has additional commercial values.
“So, we have to figure out something and for example, one of the things we have figured out is to see if we can use some of the satellite companies to drop internet across the country”.
According to him, the idea is to have internet services in each of the 774 local government headquarters in the country and to create hot spots.
The hot spots, he said, would help to create internet cafe, mobile agents, Point of Sales (POS) operations, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) operation, among others.
The apex bank governor said that financial inclusion would not be achieved without strong financial literacy and education to help people to take decisions on personal financial issues.
On efforts of the bank to ensure financial inclusion through Cashless policy, he said that there had been continuous progress with the policy.
“The simple example is on the POS; we started with 11,000 terminals in the entire Lagos area with less than 6,000 active POS terminals and were doing transactions of N5 million to N10 million per day.
“Today, we have got more than 150 thousand POS terminals in Lagos; about 20 per cent of them are active and we are doing between N1billion and N2.5 billion on POS transactions daily,’’ he said
Sanusi said that there had been general reduction in cash transactions in the country and that banks would strive to harmonise the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) policy to capture persons that were excluded in the banking system.
“A major bottleneck in the phase of financial inclusion is the identification of customers with a unique ID; I don’t know what it is in other countries, but here it is serious,’’ he said.
According to him, without proper identification, there will be a limit to the amount of money that can be given to a customer for doing business.
He said that the CBN would, on February 14, 2014, officially launch the second phase of the biometric project, adding that the contract had been awarded and that work on it was ongoing.
He said that the biometric project was to ensure that every customer of a bank, a micro finance company or any other financial system, was captured on a central data-base.
“Once a customer has been captured and the finger prints taken, he will need no form of identity to collect or to pay cash anywhere in the country,” Sanusi said.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled a technology adoption assessment survey for registered capital market operators as part of efforts to deepen innovation and efficiency in the Nigerian capital market.
In a circular, the SEC stated that the exercise was designed to evaluate the level of adoption of advanced technologies among CMOs operating within the Nigerian capital market.
According to the notice, “The following technology adoption survey is designed by the Commission to assess the adoption of advanced technologies among registered Capital Market Operators.”
The SEC directed all registered operators to log into the e-portal at using their current access credentials to complete the survey. The exercise will run for two weeks, from 5 to 20 May 2025.
Speaking recently on the role of innovation in the capital market, Emomotimi Agama, director-general of the SEC, urged stakeholders to embrace technology as a catalyst for growth, improved transparency, operational efficiency, and market resilience.
He noted that the SEC recognises the emergence of new financial products and services driven by technological advancements, and remains committed to adapting its regulatory framework to meet the evolving needs of the market.
According to him, the commission’s approach to innovation is anchored on three pillars: investor safety, market deepening, and problem-solving aimed at building a robust and efficient capital market ecosystem.
Agama also highlighted the commission’s Regulatory Incubation Programme, which allows fintech startups to operate within a controlled environment for one year while appropriate rules are developed to govern their activities.
He said the programme is part of the SEC’s broader strategy to support innovation while safeguarding market integrity and investor interests.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) ,has confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid about US$3.4 billion loan it got in April 2020 under the Rapid Financing Instrument to help alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp fall in oil prices.
IMF said the loan has been repaid as of April 30, 2025 in a statement issued in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Thursday.
However, IMF said Nigeria is still expected to honour some additional payments in forms of Special Drawing Rights charges hat will amount to US$30 million annually.
“In line with the IMF’s Articles of Agreements, these charges, levied at the SDR interest rate, which is updated at the beginning of each week, apply to the difference between Nigeria’s SDR holdings (SDR 3,164 million) (US$4.3 billion) and its cumulative SDR allocation (SDR 4,027 million) (US$5.5 billion)
“The net payment of the charges stops when Nigeria’s SDR holdings reach the cumulative allocation amount,” IMF said in the statement. Online fitness
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has allotted N598.33 billion in Nigerian Treasury Bills across three different maturities, with the 365-day bill dominating the auction, accounting for 80 percent of total sales and subscriptions.
A total of N482.62 billion was sold in the 365-day tenor, highlighting strong investor interest in the longer-term security.
The 91-day bill saw the least demand, with subscriptions of N48.4 billion and actual sales amounting to just N38.4 billion. This latest issuance brings the total Treasury bill sales for the year to N7.248 trillion.
At the auction held on Wednesday, May 7, the CBN offered N550 billion across the three maturities, N50 billion for the 91-day, N100 billion for the 182-day, and N400 billion for the 364-day bills. Despite total subscriptions dipping to N1.08 trillion from N1.53 trillion recorded at the previous auction, the auction was still oversubscribed, reflecting continued high liquidity in the financial system.
This demand pressure kept yields largely stable. The 365-day bill saw a marginal increase in yield to 24.41 percent from 24.36 percent, while the 182-day and 91-day yields remained unchanged at 20.38 percent and 18.85 percent, respectively. Yields have maintained a consistent level over the last four auctions, indicating a stable interest rate environment despite fluctuations in demand.
As of May 6, 2025, system liquidity stood at N1.21 trillion. When combined with maturing bills worth N287.98 billion, the total available liquidity more than tripled the N550 billion offered at the auction, further underscoring the robust investor appetite for government securities amid high market liquidity.
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