Contribution of Financial Inclusion on the Economic Development of Nigeria 1999 – 2020

Financial inclusion strategy was set up so that all people have access to banking and insurance services as well as financial literacy and capabilities that will help improve standard of living in the country. Therefore the study examined the contribution of financial inclusion on the economic development of Nigeria. Secondary data were collected from Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and UNDP Human Development Reports spanning from 1999 to 2020.The research work selected Nigeria as its sample and used the Error Correction Mechanism ECM to test the contribution of the explanatory variables Deposits from rural branches of commercial banks, Loans to rural branches of commercial banks, Number of Micro Finance Banks, Commercial Bank Loans to Small Scale Enterprise on the dependent variable Human Development Index .The findings from the study revealed that financial inclusion has not contributed significantly on the economic development of Nigeria for the period under review. The granger causality test also shows a unidirectional causality between financial inclusion and economic development of Nigeria. The results suggest that financial inclusion can help improve the standard of living of the country and reduce high unemployment rate in the country, if implemented effectively. The study therefore recommends that Central bank of Nigeria should approve the establishment of more micro finance banks in order to meet the financial needs of low income neighborhoods and rural dwellers. The Central bank of Nigeria should intensify efforts aimed at credit facilities to small and medium scale enterprises SMEs to boost financial inclusion in the economy by mandating banks to dedicate 10 of their net profit after tax to SMEs loans. Commercial banks should diversify their portfolios as this will help reduce various investment risks they face while extending financial service to the poor and rural dwellers in the country. There is need to improve the financial infrastructure in the country which will help banks in deposit mobilization especially the unbanked and rural dwellers in the country. Ogbonnaya-Udo, Nneka | Chukwu, Kenechukwu Origin "Contribution of Financial Inclusion on the Economic Development of Nigeria (1999 – 2020)" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-1 , December 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd47748.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/accounting-and-finance/47748/contribution-of-financial-inclusion-on-the-economic-development-of-nigeria-1999-–-2020/ogbonnayaudo-nneka