Financial Inclusion is Access: Ruth’s story

Ruth, an internally displaced person, shares her challenges accessing financial services, an experience faced by numerous forcibly displaced persons in Nigeria today.

Ruth resides at the new Kuchingoro IDP camp in Abuja. No banks or mobile agents are available at the camp, which limits her access to financial services through these facilities. As such, Ruth has to rely on an agent visiting the camp or travel a long distance outside the camp to access formal financial services. Essentially, Ruth’s access to both basic and complex financial services is limited, and this undermines her formal financial inclusion. In real life, Ruth has a bank account, indicating that she has overcome the first access barrier of opening a bank account. However, as we know, financial inclusion is beyond having an account; access based on proximity and availability is the catalyst for deepening financial inclusion.