The 6th edition of the Nigeria Fintech Week, NFW, organized by the Fintech Association of Nigeria and Fintech Associates Limited, held from the 25th to 28th of October, 2022. It brought together key fintech players, regulators, top brands, tech enthusiasts, and professionals to a week-long insightful and engaging event at the Landmark Centre, V.I, Lagos. Themed ‘Navigating the Next Normal: Sustainable Impacts in Fintech, E-Government & Emerging Technologies’, the event successfully shone the spotlight on a lot of critical and germane ecosystem issues.
Giving the opening address, Ade Bajomo, President, FintechNGR, emphasized the critical role the Fintech Association of Nigeria plays in orchestrating the ecosystem. He also stressed the importance of the event theme stating that “digital transformation without sustainability and impact on the wider ecosystem deeply entrenched is irrelevant to the dynamics of the 21st century”.
In addition, Bajomo posited that the Nigerian Fintech industry had been a trailblazer in this digitally transforming world but added that, there was still immense room for growth and “new innovations” in sectors like AgriTech, Insurtech, EdTech, PropTech, and Blockchain adoption. In his own words, “despite significant strides in payments, lending and WealthTech, we are still largely scathing the surface when it comes to deep technology revolution”.
From the networking breakfast to exhibition tours, panel sessions, product pitches by startups and a few incumbents, fireside chats, masterclasses, Fintech Industry Forum, breakout sessions, and a raffle draw which saw one of the attendees winning a Huawei notepad, #NFW2022 was an interesting experience for both online and on-site participants. It was also a platform to engage industry players, get to speed on the innovation happening in the space and the actors behind it, as well as an opportunity to network and forge collaborations.
The event had 82 speakers from different countries across 32 sessions, here are some of the most important takeaways:
To see significant adoption across board in the fintech industry, players need to intricately embrace collaboration across verticals and employ methods that are deeply entrenched within the ecosystem to tackle challenges in the space.
“The problem with monetizing an African consumer is really about identifying the core problems and creating fitting solutions. Once that is done, traction will follow.” – Ajibade Laolu-Adewale, Group Head, Digital Solutions & Fintechs, Wema Bank
“Ecosystem play is critical. Re-inventing the wheel doesn’t create value, it is best leveraging and plugging into already available systems than start from scratch. That way you reduce your costs and profit margins can go up.” – ‘DeRemi Atanda, MD, Remita
Due to the risk and relative ‘novelty’ of the blockchain space, for startups to raise quantitative funds in the blockchain space, especially on the local scene, there is need to get on the field, have a proof of concept, proven solid business models, significant mileage, as well as having a unique selling point (USP).
“I don’t think that for us to scale as an industry, POS is the only solution – to withdraw cash apart from ATM, to transact, and do business. There are services we can put in the hands of merchants that are lower than the cost of POS.” – Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, ED, FSI
“Fintech and Regtech have an important role to play in the digitalization of an economy and shouldn’t be shied away from or seen as something to put up barriers against but embraced and accommodated as part of the strategy for a digital economy.” – Andrew Davis, IFC
“Nigeria’s Fintech market remains heavy in innovation around payments and there is a need to onboard MSMEs at the center of our ecosystem, motivate them to stay and carry out business online.” – Lee Maina, Chief Solution Architect, Southern Africa region, Huawei
“Security is a big concern for fintechs and financial institutions, however, it is a shared responsibility. Hence, fintechs and businesses need to deploy a security-first approach in developing any application or technology. Most of the attacks and breaches in recent times aren’t infrastructure related. Cloud providers can indeed secure the infrastructure and ensure there are firewalls but if there are vulnerabilities in the application, you can still be hacked.” – Stephen Okoye, CTO, inq. Digital
The Nigeria Fintech Week 2022 also had an impressive line-up of sponsors; Mastercard, Zenith Bank, Huawei, Interswitch, eTranzact, Remita, 9PSB, Meta, NowNow, SAS, Banwo & Ighodalo, Branch, Binance, Alat, Soft Alliance, Wema Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie, Sterling Bank, AFEX, inq.Digital, Ecobank, The ROOM, FairMoney, Main One, Pay Masta, O’dua Investment Ltd, Kora, LBank, CoinNewsExtraTv, ARM, Maxut, Jackson, Etti & Edu, Alliance, AELEX, Convexity, NEAR, METART, Opolo, AfriChange, FSI, WhisperSMS, inCash, SIGMA, UNICAF, WomenInDefi, Softpay, FastCredit, EMTECH, MOMO PSB, Zoracom and Brandlife Digital. McKinsey & Company, as well as regulators like CBN, NIBSS, and NCC were also knowledge and ecosystem partners respectively. Proshare, SDM, CitiMobileMedia, TechEconomy, Folham Nig. Ltd, Nairametrics, TechCabal, and Financial Inclusion were also media partners for the event.
In his closing remarks, Dr. Babatunde Obrimah, COO, FintechNGR, appreciated the FintechNGR Governing Council and event planning committee for their efforts and support in making the event a success. He also highlighted some of the initiatives being done by FintechNGR, such as the DigiQuip project which equips enrollees with digital skills, and how it was shaping the ecosystem.
If you missed the event, you can catch the replays of key sessions via YouTube and also download the event report here. If you are interested in partnership/sponsorship or would like your brand to participate in the 2023 edition of the Nigeria Fintech Week, kindly send a mail to exec.sec@fintechng.org or call +2349030003013. Also keep your eyes peeled on the NFW website, www.nigeriafintechweek.org, and follow @nigeriafintechweek across social media platforms and @fintechweekng on Twitter for updates.
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