On September 16, 2026, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) joined Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Advancement (EFInA) for the launch of the 2026 Access to Financial Services in Nigeria (A2F) Survey Report, which provides evidence on how Nigerians access and use financial services, as well as the barriers shaping financial inclusion. As part of the launch, IPA co-convened a session on Vulnerability, Financial Resilience, and Social Protection.

IPA's session examined household-level resilience beneath these national figures. Survey data show that despite progress in financial inclusion, 73 percent of Nigerian adults are formally included, yet only about 31 percent of formally included adults are financially healthy, while 70.1 percent report ongoing financial or welfare stress. Among Nigerian adults who experienced financial shocks, 71.6 percent relied on fragile or erosive coping mechanisms such as borrowing, selling assets or cutting essential spending, compared with just 13.8 percent who used protective or adaptive coping strategies (EFInA 2026).

IPA presented global evidence on the Graduation approach, a bundled intervention combining a productive asset transfer, livelihood training, coaching, temporary consumption support, and savings access. A randomized controlled trial across six countries found the approach produced significant, lasting gains in income, consumption, and assets, with a positive cost-benefit return in five of the six countries (Banerjee et al. 2015). The session recommended that Nigeria's most exposed households, including farmers, dependents, and residents of the North East, be prioritized for this type of bundled support, anchored in existing infrastructure such as the National Social Safety Nets Project rather than new, parallel programs.

The discussion also featured IPA’s collaboration with the Nigeria National government on the National Poverty Intelligence Lab and the Graduation pilot in Kaduna, in partnership with Kaduna State Social Investment Programmes Agency (KADSIPA), bringing the evidence closer to the Nigerian context and ongoing efforts to address poverty.

IPA continues to collaborate with partners to advance evidence-based approaches to addressing poverty in Nigeria.

Photos: © 2026 Nathaniel Ogbu