Policy Choices and Challenges in Expanding Access to Finance for Growth in Rural Nigeria

Abstract

Nigerian financial system has witnessed significant growth over the years. The
phenomenal growth and high financial depth can be attributed in part to the country’s vast
network of financial institutions, including rural finance.
Improvements in rural finance notwithstanding, the supply of formal finance appears to
be biased against the rural population. Rural communities remain centre of deprivations
inspite of the various efforts at increasing financial services to them by the Government
and the CBN. This therefore raises the following questions: what are the constraints and
challenges of providing financial services in the rural areas? What are the policy initiatives
that can be introduced to improve rural financial services in Nigeria? Hence the main
objective of the paper is to examine the challenges and ways to improve rural financial
services in Nigeria.

Keywords: rural finance, growth, infrastructure, microfinance institutions.