Ecobank Nigeria has called for more cooperation between the Financial Technology industry, Banks and Telecommunications companies to spur the economic growth of Nigeria. Such collaboration will help grow businesses in health, agriculture, education, transportation, fashion and the creative industry, as well as commodities and the capital markets.
The Managing Director and Regional Executive of Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Akinwuntan, made this call yesterday in his keynote address at the on-going Nigeria Fintech Week, organized by the Fintech Association of Nigeria.
Akinwuntan said that for Fintechs in Nigeria to accelerate positive disruption for value, there is a strong need to develop talents, solve problem beyond payments, monetize data and challenge the status quo.
To this end, he made a case for the establishment of a Digital School of Fintech to groom talents, deepen skills for businesses and grow knowledge of the financial services industry, saying that the industry is sitting on a trove of data that can be leveraged to create values for customers, by adopting superior user experience, and Interface for affordable payment and improved credit access.
The Ecobank MD declared: “We must take the lead to introduce a continent-wide Bank Verification Number (BVN) and Global Standing Instruction (GSI) for Africa under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) Agreement, champion block-chain for cross-border payments in agriculture, education, and the government i.e. leveraging technology for better productivity.” He also stressed the need to look at ways to improve cybersecurity and defense.
He stated further that with a Pan African reach, award-winning capabilities and a customer base of over 25 million, Ecobank was enabling and partnering with Fintech platforms across the continent. He noted that Ecobank’s flagship Pan-African switch connects countries where it operates across Africa. This centralized switch allows easy integration, enabling instant transfers between 33 African countries, while offering real-time settlement across Africa in 18 local currencies.
In his opening statement, the President of the Nigeria Fintech Association, Dr. Olusegun Aina stated that with the economic vulnerability following COVID-19, Fintechs are undoubtedly the solution to the current disruptions. He said that Nigeria must be digitally positioned, because digital readiness will spur economic recovery in 2021 and beyond.
Dr. Aina explained that businesses and all stakeholders must appreciate changes in customers’ behaviour, which is the main thing that determines a company’s success. He said that regulation and funding were the main challenges hindering Fintechs from fully occupying their space, as they strive to adapt to the need of customers in the present generation.
The Nigeria Fintech Week with the theme, “Evolving Economic Disruptions; Fintech as a Solution” is attracting participants from all parts of the world. According to the Nigeria Fintech Association, with the evolving global economic disruption, the Nigeria Fintech Week (NFW) 2020 aims to discover, launch and bring to limelight the new Fintech solutions that can be leveraged in key important but neglected sectors such as health, agriculture, education, ecommerce and logistics.
The weeklong event is featuring product launches, presentations and speakers, who apart from the Ecobank Nigeria Managing Director and the Fintech President, include Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of NCDC, Oremeyi Akah, Chief Core Officer, Interswitch, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Interim CEO, M-PESA, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, Group MD of Zenith Bank, Alan Sinfield, CEO of 9mobile, Jay Alabraba, Co-Founder of Paga and Ade Bajomo, Executive Director, IT & Operations, Access Bank.
Fintech is a term used to describe financial technology, an industry encompassing any kind of technology in financial services – from businesses to consumers and Fintech describes any company that provides financial services through software or other technology, including anything from mobile payment apps to cryptocurrency.
