The Long View: Reflections on signals and shifts in the Nigerian Financial Landscape Issue 1: EFInA’s Focus and Priorities for 2026
Dear esteemed stakeholder,
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to you for your continued partnership and commitment to advancing financial inclusion and economic empowerment in Nigeria. Your collaboration and trust remain central to EFInA’s mission and to the collective progress of the financial inclusion ecosystem.
The past year was one of reflection and repositioning for EFInA. In response to a rapidly evolving economic and policy environment, we undertook a deliberate brand refresh, reaffirming our mandate as Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Advancement. The change, from Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, represents our energised drive to be more intentional in how we support the ecosystem to ensure that financial inclusion results in positive, tangible outcomes, especially for underserved segments of our economy.
EFInA’s internal transition occurred alongside major reforms reshaping Nigeria’s fiscal, financial services, and capital market landscape, including the Nigeria Tax Act, the Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA 2025), and the Investments and Securities Act 2025. While these reforms are progressive and aimed at strengthening governance, investor confidence, and economic growth, market responses have been mixed, reflecting optimism alongside concerns driven by implementation uncertainties and longstanding trust deficits. At the same time, financial inclusion objectives across payments, credit, savings, pensions, and insurance have increasingly shifted toward effectiveness, quality, and measurable impact, signalling a maturing agenda in which success is defined less by access alone and more by improved livelihoods, household resilience, and consumer protection.
Within this context, we were actively engaged in shaping policy dialogue and coordinating ecosystem responses across multiple fronts, combining our convening role with timely thought leadership to advance a more outcome-oriented financial inclusion agenda. Through publications such as “From Relief to Resilience: Rethinking Nigeria’s Social Investments for Lasting Impact” and “Beyond Access: Putting Financial Health at the Core of Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Strategy,” we challenged prevailing narratives that equate inclusion with access alone, and advanced the case for resilience, financial health, and long-term economic empowerment as core measures of success. In parallel, our article “POS Terminals, Agent Banking, and the Inclusion Agenda: Looking for the Silver Lining” provided a nuanced analysis of payments and agent banking dynamics, highlighting both the risks of disruption and the opportunities for more inclusive delivery models.
We deepened awareness through targeted explainer pieces, including “CBN’s 2025 Agent Banking Operational Guidelines: Misconceptions and Realities” and “CBN 2025 Draft Guidelines on the Operations of ATMs in Nigeria: Misconceptions and Realities.” These explainers helped clarify complex regulatory developments, address misinformation, and surface practical implications for providers, agents, and consumers.
Overall, EFInA’s thought leadership and convening activities strengthened informed ecosystem dialogue and reinforced its role as a trusted bridge between policy intent, market realities, and consumer outcomes. During the year, EFInA launched the MSME Impact Advisory Group with SMEDAN and partners, convened the first Ask the Regulator townhall on Consumer Protection, implemented community-level interventions in Northern Nigeria, and deployed a range of advocacy assets and engagements. A notable example was EFInA’s coordination around the proposed geotagging of payment terminals, where evidence-informed ecosystem input helped surface risks of market disruption and continues to shape discussions to safeguard access, stability, and trust for low-income and informal users
Looking ahead to 2026, Nigeria’s financial inclusion agenda is shifting from access expansion to a stronger focus on value, system quality, and measurable impact. As payments infrastructure becomes more interoperable, credit markets become more disciplined, and savings, pensions, and insurance increasingly resilience-oriented, trust, transparency, and consumer protection will be decisive. In this context, inclusion will be judged by whether financial services genuinely improve livelihoods, build resilience, and protect consumers in times of need.
Against this backdrop, EFInA’s priorities for 2026 will focus on strengthening system effectiveness through four interconnected pillars: rigorous research, targeted advocacy, systems strengthening, and catalysing innovation. Central to our research agenda is the delivery of the 2026 Access to Financial Services in Nigeria (A2F) Survey, which will continue to provide foundational evidence on financial inclusion, financial health, and empowerment across population segments. Alongside this, we will intensify advocacy for inclusive, transparent, and well-sequenced implementation of reforms, strengthen institutional capacity and coordination across the ecosystem, and support innovation that enables individuals and businesses to adapt to evolving regulatory and economic realities.
In addition, EFInA will lead and support major strategy and policy reform processes with select regulators, strengthen the impact of our partnership with SMEDAN and other stakeholders through the MSME Impact Advisory Group, and deliver the Digital Financial Services and Consumer Protection Index to strengthen accountability and service quality. We will continue to provide technical and advocacy support to regulatory institutions such as the CBN, NCC, and development finance institutions, financial service providers and other ecosystem actors. This support will advance regulatory reform, service responsiveness, and consumer protection through our research, convenings, and advocacy assets.
A major part of our focus for 2026 will be deepening subnational interest in the “financial Inclusion for economic advancement” conversation. To this end, we hope to expand our reach and engagement with the States to define and implement a state-owned financial inclusion agenda.
As always, EFInA’s work is grounded in partnership. We welcome continued collaboration with stakeholders who share our commitment to inclusive, resilient, and people-centred financial systems, and we invite expressions of interest in partnering with us across research, policy engagement, advocacy, and programme implementation in the year ahead.
On behalf of the Board and Management of EFInA, I thank you for your continued support and look forward to working together in 2026 to advance shared goals for financial inclusion and economic empowerment in Nigeria.
With sincere regards,
Foyinsolami Akinjayeju
Chief Executive Officer
