The Fintech Association of Nigeria celebrated its first anniversary in grand style as it hosted representatives of its member institutions, regulators, affiliated associations and key players in the Nigerian Fintech space.
The event was hosted by Access Bank at its African Fintech Foundry facility in Lagos.
Fintech Association of Nigeria President, Dr. SegunAina, while welcoming guests and participants noted that the Association had been laying a very solid foundation for a thriving Fintech industry since its inception in June 2017.
According to Aina, the Association under his leadership has become a rallying point for Fintechs and Fintech related activities in Nigeria.
He said the Association’s membership base at present stands at 52. Listing crucial engagement the Association has had in the last one year, he said they include: hosting of IMF/WorldBank delegation, Co-hosting of Lord Mayor of London City and the DFID UK team, meeting with the Chairman Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions amongst others.
He equally said the Fintech Nigeria engagements with regulators and the Federal Government such as Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigerian Stock Exchange, National Insurance Commission, National Information Technology Development Agency, Federal Ministries of Science & Technology, Communication, Commerce, Trade &Investment, Finance would go a long way in creating an innovation and investment friendly environment through appropriate regulatory framework for the growth of the industry in Nigeria.
According to him ” the Fintech Association of Nigeria is leading an effort to open up market access and foster cross-border policy regime as it leads the formation of the African Fintech Council, a Council that would be made up of representatives of the National Fintech Associations from the countries in Africa.”
In his goodwill message, President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. UcheOlowu, stated that the acceptability, growth, and impact of the Association within a year of existence played a key role in enlisting CIBN as a member of the Association.
He further discussed the believe of the Institute in the interplay between the fintechs and the banks as partners in transforming the financial sector.
Olowu also disclosed that the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Nigeria (CIBN), will host members of the Association, players in the fintech and financial sector at the FintechNGR Social Meet (3) on November 1st 2018.
From left: Vice President, FintechNGR/ED Access Bank, Ade Bajomo; Registrar/CE, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, SeyeAwojobi; President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr.UcheOlowu; President, FintechNGRDr.SegunAina, at the event.
Giving the anniversary lecture, Ade Bajomo, Vice-president, FintechNGR/ ED, IT & Operations Access Bank gave the overview of how technology has been playing significant roles in everyday activities of humans especially in financial services delivery.
He then narrowed down to the revolution Fintech has brought to the financial services delivery. According to him, “the fintech revolution that begun in 1866 with the successful laying of the first transatlantic cable, providing infrastructure for financial globalization has gone through various paradigm shift leading to the creation of first bachelors degree in fintech in 2016”.
Bajomo went on to discuss the diversity of Fintech offerings in Banking, Capital Market, Insurance, Real Estate, Education amongst others while he equally discussed the key challenges Fintech Innovation faces as lack of access to adequate data, poor regulation and difficulty in scaling from small fintech to top-tech companies.
He concluded by predicting the future mainstream, saying that block-chain will shake things up, digital becomes mainstream, advances in robotics and AI will start a new wave of re-shoring and localization, cybersecurity will be one of the top risks facing financial institutions, customer intelligence will be the most important predictor of revenue growth and profitability.
Dr. Yinka David-West, Member FintechNGRGovCo/ Director, Lagos Business School anchored a discussion and interactive session on the Fintech Regulation Bill the Association is working on as salient contributions were made and crucial industry inputs and perspectives were obtained for the bill.
Aside the members of Association, in attendance were representatives of Standard Chartered Bank, Google, Microsoft, General Electric, NIBSS, Union Bank, Zenith Bank, Alphabeta Consulting and a host of others.
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