Vice President, Kashim Shettima has called for an urgent need for financial innovation to drive Nigeria’s economic and financial inclusion agenda.

This, according to him, was in line with the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to bringing over thirty million unbanked Nigerians into the formal financial sector.

He made the call during a high-level policy dialogue between the Nigerian government and private sector stakeholders held in Washington DC, the United States capital.

The initiative, which brought together government officials, regulators, law enforcement agencies, and fintech industry leaders at the George Washington University, aimed to leverage innovative approaches to drive a sustainable and inclusive financial system in Nigeria.

“We must develop a sustainable collaboration approach that will facilitate the adoption of inclusive payment to achieve our objective of economic and financial inclusion,” he stated.

Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in charge of Financial System Stability, Philip Ikeazor, noted the need for ongoing collaboration among all players to achieve the objectives of the Aso Accord on Economic and Financial Inclusion.

Director General, National Information Technology Agency, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, proposed “a Digital-first approach and the need to fuse Digital Literacy with Financial literacy as a means to address trust issues affecting the inclusive payment ecosystem.”

In his remarks, the Technical Advisor to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Dr Nurudeen Zauro, explained that the gathering will eventually evolve into a mechanism that will provide relevant information to the Office of the Vice President to facilitate effective decision-making for economic and financial inclusion.