Nigeria Financial Inclusion Report 2026
Account ownership reached 63.3% of Nigerian adults in 2024, yet about 49 million remained unbanked. The report examines access gaps, digital payments, savings, credit and household financial resilience.
Executive summary
Nigeria has made more progress on financial inclusion in the past three years than in the previous decade, but the gains are shallow, unequal and still well short of national targets.
Nigeria enters 2027 with more of its adults inside the formal financial system than ever before, yet still well short of its national targets and its regional peers. This report draws on the World Bank's Global Findex Database 2025, which covers five Nigerian survey waves from 2011 to 2024, to examine who has an account, how accounts are used, who remains excluded and why, and how resilient Nigerian households are to financial shocks [1, 2].
The 2021–24 jump was exceptional. Account ownership barely moved between 2014 (44.4%) and 2021 (45.3%), then rose by 18 points in three years to 63.3% [1]. About 84 million adults now have an account, and the unbanked population fell from roughly 67 million to 49 million.
Banks still anchor the system. 59.7% of adults have a bank or similar account, against a regional average of 37.8%. Unlike most of the region, Nigeria is a market where bank accounts, rather than mobile money, dominate [1, 15].
Mobile money has grown on top of banking. Mobile money ownership quadrupled to 32.8%, but 29.3% of adults hold both types of account; only 3.5% rely on mobile money alone.
Targets remain out of reach. The Central Bank's National Financial Inclusion Strategy aimed for 95% overall inclusion by 2024 [4]. On the Findex measure, Nigeria ranks 11th of 35 Sub-Saharan economies and trails the lower-middle-income average of 70.4%.
Six groups lag by 16 to 38 points. Account ownership is 52% among women, 47% among the poorest 40%, 44% among adults aged 15–24 and 42% among those with primary education or less.
The gender gap has not narrowed. At 22 points, it is wider than in 2011 (7 points), roughly double the Sub-Saharan average of 12 points, and second only to Togo in the region.
The excluded are concentrated. We estimate that women make up about 65% of unbanked adults, and adults with primary education or less about 69%.
Payments have gone digital fastest. 54.5% of adults made or received a digital payment, and digital merchant payments tripled from 9.1% to 28.4%, ahead of Ghana (27.3%).
Formal saving more than doubled. 43.4% of adults saved in an account, up from 17.9% in 2021, though only 7.3% earned interest and 7.1% saved for old age.
Formal credit has stalled for a decade. 78.9% of adults borrowed, but only 9.1% from a bank or mobile money provider. Family and friends (55.2%) and food bought on credit (53.3%) carry most household borrowing.
Farm income is still paid in cash. A third of adults sell crops or livestock, and 65% of them are paid in cash only, making agriculture the largest undigitised payment stream.
One adult in four (25.0%) could not raise emergency funds within 30 days in 2024, up from 20.1% in 2021 and nearly double the Sub-Saharan rate of 13.3%. Reliance on savings and work for emergencies fell, while selling assets doubled to 16.3%. Day-to-day expenses are the leading financial worry for 39.4% of adults, and 18.7% experienced a natural disaster or severe weather event in the past three years.
Nigeria's remaining exclusion is driven above all by poverty: 65% of adults without a bank account say they lack enough money to use one. Distance (47%) and missing documents (41%) follow. Closing these gaps will require cheaper, tiered accounts linked to the national identity system, denser agent networks outside cities, and products designed for basic phones. For providers, the largest opportunities lie in digitising agricultural and government payments, building credit on transaction data, and serving the 15–24 age group, which is more connected than older adults but far less banked.
EFInA's 2025 Access to Financial Services survey will provide the first state-level view since 2023 [10].
Key findings
Account ownership jumped by 18 percentage points
63.3% of adults aged 15+ had an account in 2024, up from 45.3% in 2021. About 84.4 million adults had an account and 48.9 million did not.
Mobile money mostly overlaps with banking
32.8% of adults had a mobile money account, but 29.3% held both bank and mobile money accounts. Only 3.5% relied on mobile money alone.
The gender and education gaps persist
Account ownership was 74.3% among men and 52.2% among women, a 22.1-point gap. It was 79.7% among adults with secondary education or more versus 42.2% among those with primary education or less.
Payments and savings grew faster than credit
54.5% of adults made or received digital payments and 43.4% saved formally in 2024. Only 9.1% borrowed from a bank, similar institution or mobile money provider.
Agricultural payments are the largest undigitised stream
33.0% of adults received agricultural-sales income; 64.9% of sellers were paid in cash only. The report identifies farm payments as a major opportunity for useful inclusion.
Access has not delivered financial resilience
25.0% of adults could not raise emergency funds within 30 days, compared with 13.3% across Sub-Saharan Africa. The report’s 68–81% account-ownership range for 2027 is an illustrative extrapolation, not a forecast.
| Year | Adult population (m) | With an account (%) | With an account (m) | Without an account (m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 92.6 | 29.7 | 27.5 | 65.1 |
| 2014 | 100.6 | 44.4 | 44.7 | 55.9 |
| 2017 | 109.2 | 39.7 | 43.4 | 65.8 |
| 2021 | 122.4 | 45.3 | 55.4 | 67.0 |
| 2024 | 133.3 | 63.3 | 84.4 | 48.9 |
| Economy | Any account | Bank account | Mobile money | Digital payment | Debit card use | Formal borrowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | 63.3 | 59.7 | 32.8 | 54.5 | 48.3 | 9.1 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 58.2 | 37.8 | 40.0 | 50.6 | 22.2 | 12.4 |
| Lower-middle income | 70.4 | 65.0 | 24.4 | 47.3 | 35.2 | 14.1 |
| Ghana | 81.2 | 38.7 | 78.3 | 80.4 | 14.8 | 29.5 |
| Kenya | 90.1 | 45.4 | 87.5 | 89.3 | 19.5 | 37.5 |
| South Africa | 81.1 | 78.4 | 31.6 | 67.2 | 59.8 | 13.2 |
| Egypt | 43.1 | 35.3 | 15.6 | 36.3 | 32.6 | 10.4 |
| Ethiopia | 48.8 | 48.5 | 9.5 | 20.7 | 12.8 | 4.3 |
Account ownership, 2011 to 2024
After a decade of stop-start progress, account ownership jumped 18 points between 2021 and 2024, carried mainly by bank and similar accounts.
Nigeria's account ownership has followed a stop-start path. It rose from 29.7% in 2011 to 44.4% in 2014, slipped to 39.7% in 2017 and recovered only to 45.3% in 2021, a period in which the Sub-Saharan average climbed steadily and overtook Nigeria. Between 2021 and 2024 the trend broke: ownership rose 18 points to 63.3%, the fastest gain recorded for Nigeria and well above the regional increase of nine points [1].
Several forces converged in this period. The naira redesign of late 2022 and early 2023 drained cash from circulation, pushing households and traders towards transfers, point-of-sale agents and mobile wallets; mobile transfer volumes rose by 231% year on year in January 2023 [11, 12]. Digital-first banks and payment providers scaled rapidly through agent networks, and from December 2023 the leading wallets required national identity and bank verification numbers at sign-up [14].
Mobile money ownership rose from 8.7% to 32.8% of adults between 2021 and 2024. But the Findex data show that this growth came overwhelmingly from people who already had, or simultaneously opened, a bank or similar account: 29.3% of adults hold both, while only 3.5% hold mobile money alone. Most of the 18-point rise in overall ownership therefore came through bank and similar accounts, which rose from 45.1% to 59.7% [1].
The distinction matters because many of Nigeria's fastest-growing wallet providers hold microfinance bank licences, and respondents may classify the same product as either a bank or a mobile money account. The practical conclusion is unchanged: new digital channels have mainly deepened services for people already near the formal system, rather than reaching those furthest from it.
Nigeria among its peers
Nigeria now beats the regional average but sits mid-table, and it still holds more unbanked adults than any other country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Who is left out
Every disadvantaged group gained ground, but none closed its gap. The unbanked are mostly women, poorer, younger and less educated.
The gender gap
The gap between men and women has held at 20 points or more for a decade and is now the second widest in the region.
Barriers to account ownership
Poverty, not distrust, keeps most unbanked Nigerians out of the formal system, followed by distance and missing documents.
Payments and the digital shift
Payments are where Nigeria's financial system has changed fastest, with digital merchant payments tripling in three years.
Receiving payments
Wages and remittances have largely moved onto accounts. Farm income, the most widespread payment stream, has not.
Saving
Nigerians save at high rates, but until recently mostly outside the formal system. In 2024, 72.3% of adults saved some money and 43.4% saved in an account, the highest formal saving rate recorded for Nigeria and well above the Sub-Saharan average of 34.7%. Across low- and middle-income economies, formal saving rose 16 points between 2021 and 2024, the fastest growth in more than a decade [1, 19].
Borrowing and credit
Nearly four in five adults borrow, yet formal credit has barely moved in a decade and digital lending has yet to take off.
Financial resilience
Wider account ownership has not made households more resilient. One adult in four could not raise emergency money within a month.
Digital readiness and consumer protection
Most Nigerians own a phone, but only a third rely on a smartphone, which caps how far app-based finance can reach.
Policy context and other measures
National targets have repeatedly been reset, and every available measure shows Nigeria well short of the 95% goal.
Outlook and what to watch
The 2021–24 leap was driven by a combination of factors that may not repeat at the same strength: a once-off cash shock, rapid fintech expansion and a large pool of adults who were close to the formal system. If ownership grew at the 2021–24 pace of about six points a year, it would reach about 81% by 2027; at the slower 2011–21 pace it would reach only about 68%. Either way, the 95% target is unlikely to be met this decade on the Findex measure.
Implications for stakeholders
The findings in this report carry different implications for each group with an interest in Nigerian financial inclusion. The report sets out, for each, the most significant implication and the action we consider most likely to extend inclusion and create value.
Methodology and data notes
Data source. The analysis is based on the World Bank's Global Findex Database 2025, released in July 2025. The fifth edition is based on nationally representative surveys of about 145,000 adults in 141 economies, conducted in 2024 [1, 3]. Nigeria's data cover adults aged 15 and over; the adult population used in the dataset was 133.3 million in 2024.
References
[1] World Bank: The Global Findex Database 2025 (dataset, July 2025) https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalindex