According to the report, the international community uses two FAS indicators to monitor the Target 8.10 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aims at strengthening the capacity of domestic financial institutions to expand access to banking and financial services.
According to the report, Nigeria recorded declines in these two critical FAS indicators and 12 other indicators among the 64 indicators measured by the FAS.
Consequently, the Number of Commercial Bank Branches per 1,000 km2 in Nigeria fell to 5.94 in 2020 from 5.68 in 2019.
The reduction according to the IMF was to fall in the number of ATMs in Nigeria by 649 to 18,810 in 2020 from 19,459 in 2019.
The IMF report also showed a sharp decline in the number of registered mobile money agent outlets in Nigeria to 129,154 in 2020 from 145,800 in 2019, representing 11 per cent decline.