Financial inclusion and household consumption : case of Nigeria

الملخص EN

The recent awareness of the important role of finance in economic growth and development has stimulated interests of policy-makers and other stakeholders in expanding households’ financial access for inclusion economic growth and economic development.

This paper is a contribution to the scant literature using micro-data to investigate the effects of financial inclusion on economic outcomes of households.

Based on the data of Living Standards and Demographic survey of 2010 and 2012, this paper focuses on households’ welfare through consumption in Nigeria.

The study employs the panel data approach to analyze the effects of financial inclusion on household consumption, controlling for the endogeneity of the financial inclusion itself, and concludes that access to finance has a positive impact on households’ consumption.

This has implication for policy makers and practitioners to use access to finance as a tool for poverty reduction in the Nigeria.