Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State on Tuesday signed an Executive Order 2023 on Financial Inclusion to address the exclusion of about 2.1 million poor people in the state.

The governor said the executive order was pursuant to the government’s efforts to address the exclusion of the poor from financial services and ensure they benefited from the social intervention funds.

According to him, the executive order specifically includes vulnerable indigent citizens in rural areas in financial services to ensure they benefit from the state and federal government’s social intervention programmes.

Mr Sani said the Financial Inclusion and Literacy Committee had been constituted to fashion strategies and modalities to ensure the inclusion of the state’s poor and vulnerable.

He said the state government would equip the beneficiaries with financial skills to make sound financial and investment decisions.

He added that the state government had targeted the inclusion of about one million poor and vulnerable citizens in the financial services sector in the next year.

“The state government, in collaboration with key stakeholders, including CSOs, NGOs, and Financial Technology Companies (FINTECHS), will develop a state financial inclusion strategy.

“It will be developing state register of the poor, under-served, and vulnerable. 

“The register will be subjected to various stages of integrity tests, while the state government will work with banks and other financial service providers to open bank accounts for un-banked citizens,” the governor said. 

Mr Sani said the state government was working with regulatory agencies in the financial sector to organise financial literacy workshops to equip the beneficiaries with needed financial skills.

He added that the state government would be consulting key stakeholders to ensure the mass sensitisation and involvement of citizens in that regard.

Mr Sani said the Financial Inclusion and Literacy Committee had been directed to liaise with relevant government ministries, departments, and agencies to fully implement the order.

(NAN)