Assessing the suitability of the Ethiopian Laws Regulating Banking Business in achieving the goals of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
In recent years, financial inclusion has been broadly recognized as critical in reducing poverty
and achieving inclusive economic growth that ensued various developing countries around the
world to adopt financial inclusion policies in dealing with their respective financial sectors
through devising National Financial Inclusion Strategies. Congruently, Ethiopia adopted its
National Financial Inclusion Strategy in 2017 with the ultimate goal of achieving universal
access to and use range of affordable and high quality financial products and services of
regulated financial institutions by all individuals and enterprises by 2025.
Though financial inclusion is promising towards a country‟s economic development, inadequate
financial regulation is considered to be one of the major obstacles that hinder the realization of
such a promise which signifies the role of financial regulation for financial inclusion.
Accordingly, the Ethiopian Financial Inclusion Strategy suggests for the reform of the existing
financial laws of the country in order for the financial inclusion strategy to reach at its potential
success, without specifically dealing with which financial laws should be reformed and how such
reform may be conducted.
As such, this paper identifies how financial regulation should be conducted to promote financial
inclusion and assess whether the financial laws are devised in a manner that promote financial
inclusion by giving special emphasis on the banking business regulating laws of the National
Bank of Ethiopia relating account ownership, payment system and credit facility in terms of
promoting the goals of the NFIS and suggest recommendations on issues that require reform and
the manner such reform should take place.