By Mariama Jallow
The First Deputy Governor of the country apex bank, Dr.Seeku Jabbi, has underscored the significance of Financial inclusion to the population, pointing out that it could contribute to sustaining economic welfare and alleviate poverty. Financial inclusion also support economic, monetary and Financial stability by making savings and investments decisions more efficient, enhancing the transmission of monetary Policy and facilitate the functioning of the economy, stated Dr. Jabbi.
The second-in-command of the Central Bank of The Gambia was speaking on Tuesday,10th December at a Hotel in Bakau, during a three-day National Financial Inclusion Strategy Forum organized by his Bank, in collaboration with key development partners, including the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the World Bank (WB) and Alliance for Financial Inclusion Fund {AFI–a global network of financial inclusion policymakers.}
The forum was to sensitise the gathered stakeholders, so as to ensure that the majority of women and youth Enterprises are financially empowered to improve usage of Financial services; to create adequate awareness on Financial information through financial literacy; and to ensure the right of consumers to Financial access in a fair and reasonable manner is protected.
The First Deputy Governor defined financial inclusion as the ability to access financial services (credit, saving, insurance, Remittances and payment system) in a safe and sustainable manner, making sure that finance is available, accessible and affordable to the majority of the population.
“Financial inclusion may not be the sole panacea for poverty reduction and inclusive growth, but has been tested as a pivotal means to ensure that access to Financial services can economically empower the poor and vulnerable and move them out of poverty and the challenges of being left out of growth and prosperity,” the forum participants heard.
Dr. Jabbi pointed to a World Bank data indicating that globally, it’s estimated that “some 1.7 billion people are unbanked with half of this number coming from development countries of SSA {Sub-Saharan Africa} and South Asia and South Africa.
“On the other hand, global findex {the world’s most comprehensive set of data on how people make payments, save money, borrow, and manage risk} 2017 shows that about 69% or 3.8 billion of the adult population have account with banks but this is highly skewed to the developed nation (94 %).”
The World Bank Resident Representative for the Gambia, Ms. Elene Imnadze, told the forum: “Today’s covergence marks the formal start of our World Bank technical assistance project to support the improvement of financial inclusion in the Gambia. Through this project, we aim to support the formulation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy: from A to Z – providing supply side data diagnostics to drafting and launching the strategy to providing support to operationalize some components of the strategy.”
She informed her audience that the World Bank Group considers financial inclusion as a critical enabler to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity. “In addition, Financial Inclusion has been identified as an enabler for 7 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” said the Resident Representative.
