EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION ON POVERTY REDUCTION, SAVINGS AND NIGERIA ECONOMIC GROWTH: 1980 -2022

This study examined the financial inclusion and Nigerian economic growth for the period 1980-2022. The study considered the following three objectives; to examine the significant impact of financial inclusion on the Nigerian economic growth, evaluate the impact of financial inclusion on poverty reduction in Nigeria and to ascertain the impact of financial inclusion no savings growth in Nigerian economy. Secondary time series data were used to carry out the empirical analysis. The study employed the aid of vector error correction model (VECM) approach, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron tests, Co-integration Test and ECM. Based on the above econometric and statistic techniques conducted, it was observed that financial inclusion has significant positive impact on the Nigerian economic growth. Our results indicated that financial inclusion has significant positive impacts on poverty reduction in Nigeria. Furthermore, the result reported that financial inclusion has significant positive impact on the Nigerian savings growth within the study period (1980-2022). These empirical results do support that; One percent decrease in the interest rate (ITR), inflation rate (IFR) and exchange rate (EXR) at lag (-2) will lead to [31% (ITR)-2), 53%(IFR)-2), and 8%(EXR)-2)] increases on the aggregate saving (ASE) Nigeria economy. One percent increase in the financial inclusion proxy by; deposit from the rural areas (DRA), loan to rural areas (LRA), account owners of any type (AA) and electronic money banking/payment system (EMB) at lag (-2) will lead to [38%(DRA)-2), 29%(LRA)-2), 59%(AA)-2) and 03%(EMB)-2)] increases on Per capita income (PCI) respectively in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the researcher recommends that; Nigeria governments should fund financial inclusion programs preferring financial literacy as a national strategy for financial inclusion because it is relatively cheaper to educate the population about financial management and the benefits of using formal financial services. Stable electricity supply to drive the infrastructural facilities provided by banks, telecommunication companies and other related service providers such availability and affordability of financial services in Nigerian monetary authority (CBN) should increase the number of formal account ownership by building up trust securities in financial institutions operation in Nigeria, remove all obstacles for account ownership such as income and age bracket bias, distance in location and education discrimination in the delivery and use of financial services