The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office was set up in 1997. FCDO is the major donor of EFInA as its key partner in financial inclusion. FCDO has been funding EFInA since its establishment in 2007. FCDO’s key objective is to make global development a national priority while fostering a new ‘aid relationship’ with governments of developing countries. FCDO’s top priorities in Nigeria include:

• Helping millions of people to get a bank account and use financial services to build their savings and small businesses
• Providing more children with a better education
• Helping Nigeria use its oil revenues to improve the lives of its citizens
• Providing more family planning and better health services to stop women dying in childbirth
• Immunising more children, helping eradicate polio and distributing antimalarial bed nets

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are guided by the belief that every life has equal value. The Foundation focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. The goal of the Global Development Program, Financial Services for the Poor is to provide millions of poor people in the developing world with reliable access to affordable financial services that can help them build better, healthier lives.