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The youngest lawmaker in Nigeria and honourable member, representing Owode Onire constituency, Hon Rukayat Shittu has identified facilitating financial access and inclusion of the rural communities of Owode Onire constituency as a necessity to increase the economic capacity, strengthen careers, build wealth and achieve financial freedom of the constituency.
Hon Rukayat stated that a huge challenge facing the rural constituency of Owode Onire is the lack of access to financial institutions, which has led to inadequate access and benefit from the numerous government initiatives and intervention, both from the state and federal government.
In a statement on her social media pages titled “Financial access and inclusion of Owode Onire constituency is my priority”, Rukayat said that, survey in Owode Onire shows that 70% of the constituency are without access to financial services, with women being the most affected.
According to her, other studies have equally shown that low income individuals and families are more than 6 times as likely as others to be unbanked or under banked, with younger people in rural communities tending to rely on non-traditional financial options.
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Hon. Rukayat, who is a journalist explained that, before becoming a lawmaker, she had learned that more than 42 million adults who live in rural areas in Nigeria lack basic banking services and the Owode Onire constituency is a perfect example.
According to her, there’s no bank or any financial institution in Owode Onire and the people of the constituency are completely excluded from financial access.
She also noted that only about 40% of those living in rural areas have any formal accounts and this means that more than 60% of our people cannot access the banking services.
Rukayat maintained that, women in rural communities are worst hit because they do not have the liberty to abandon their household in search of financial services in far away places and improving access to financial system for low and moderate income communities is critical to addressing the financial equity gap that has left so many communities behind.
She therefore concluded that, without access to responsible financial services, this gap will continue to widen and these population won’t be able to create the wealth that is needed for future generations to build from.
She also calls for new ideas and partnerships to enhance the process of creating access and financial inclusion for the Constituency.
