Champion of Inclusion

Champion of Inclusion Finance & Development, September 2017, Vol. 54, No. 3

Benno Ndulu discusses why more people should have access to financial services

Benno Ndulu is governor of the Bank of Tanzania and a champion for financial services for the poorest and most disadvantaged segments of society. As the current chair of the board of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, whose membership includes more than 90 developing economies worldwide, Ndulu has helped pioneer some of the most innovative policy approaches to extending the financial system to the unbanked. Under his leadership, the Bank of Tanzania licensed its first two credit reference bureaus to reduce lending risks while boosting credit to the private sector and supported the use of mobile technology as a means of bringing more people into the banking fold.

With a doctorate in economics from Northwestern University in the United States, Ndulu has worked for the World Bank in east Africa and was instrumental in developing the African Economic Research Consortium, a pan-African economic policy organization.

In this interview with F&D’s Bruce Edwards, Ndulu points out that behind every equitable financial system stands a good central banker.

F&D: Financial inclusion has received a lot of attention of late. Where do central bank governors fit into that discussion?

BN: Within the continent of Africa, central banks have tended to be champions for pushing the cause of financial inclusion, and it’s not by accident. You cannot have an effective monetary policy without having a much bigger proportion of the population included in the money question itself. So financial inclusion—or extending the inclusion of the unbanked into the system—brings a lot more finances to be influenced through policy into the system.

That’s one main reason. The second is simply that the goal of poverty reduction, or even eradication where possible, does require that the constraints on access to finance be resolved. And the financial sector by and large has always been in the ambit of central banks. Central banks take care of not just monetary policy—they also supervise banks and are in charge of payment systems. So a good number of central banks have added financial inclusion to their mandate.

F&D: Who is least likely to have access to financial services in Tanzania or the region more broadly?

BN: First, it is the rural population. That would be probably the lowest on the ladder of financial inclusion or the...

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