The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested five primary policy options that Nigeria should prioritize in promoting financial inclusion, which are:
increasing financial access points, promoting digital financial services, improving financial literacy, upgrading the framework for fintech operations, and enhancing the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system's features and applications.
According to the IMF, despite gradual improvement in financial inclusion rates in Nigeria,
the country still falls short of the targets set in its 2012 financial inclusion strategy.
The IMF has also identified Nigeria's low adoption of digital currencies, highlighting that Nigeria's bank account adoption rate is still below the Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial inclusion target of 80% by 2020, increasing to 95% by 2024.
The IMF's report recommended refocusing the approach to financial education and continuing to improve networks and financial access points to close inclusion gaps across gender, education, income, and geography.