COMMUNIQUÉ FROM FITC 2019 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES 2.0
The event held on Thursday, 25 July, 2019 at Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Introduction
FITC’s 2019 Thought Leadership Series 2.0, themed “Emerging Financial Technologies and the Nigerian Financial Services Sector:
Exploring Opportunities for Global Competitiveness,” held on 25 July, 2019 at the Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event featured ninety-three stakeholders, including regulators and professionals from the banking (commercial, merchant, mortgage and microfinance), insurance, pension, capital market and manufacturing industries. FITC also presented five new products that demonstrated FITC’s readiness for 2020 and beyond.
Some notable guests at the event were the Special Guest of Honour, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, CON, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who was represented by Mr. Sam Chukwuyem Okojere, Director, Payment Systems, CBN; the Chief Host, Mrs. Aishah Ahmad, CFA, Chairman, FITC Board and Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN; Mr. Oscar N. Onyema, Managing Director, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); as well as some members of the FITC Board.
The MD/CEO FITC, Dr. Lucy Surhyel Newman, CPT, delivered the welcome address. She mentioned how FinTech is disrupting all sectors of the economy. She discussed developments in the digital space and how financial institutions can optimise technology to enhance their service delivery. She also shared insights from the preliminary indicative findings of the FinTech & Digital Skills Survey deployed to stakeholders, operators and regulators in the financial services sector. The survey is a collaboration between FITC, FinTech Institute and FinTech Circle UK.
Mrs. Aishah Ahmad, CFA, delivered the keynote address. She mentioned that 'FinTech' is the new buzzword, which has grown to disrupt traditional banking in the last 3-4 years. She talked about how the mobile device is a huge game changer as over 88% of banking transactions are technologically-driven, and challenged the audience to hold a real discussion on the way forward for the benefit of all.
The panel discussion was chaired by Ms. Mary Joseph Uduk, FCIB, Ag. Director-General, Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). Other panellists included: Mr. Ade Bajomo, FITC Board member and Executive Director, Information Technology & Operations, Access Bank Plc; Mrs. Onajite Regha, CEO/Executive Secretary, E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN); Mr. Aderemi Atanda, representative of
Mr. John Tani Obaro, Managing Director, SystemSpecs; and Mr. Babatunde O. Obrimah, representative of Dr. Segun Aina, President, Africa FINTECH Network.
Leveraging the insights gained from the indicative survey findings, the panel members shared their perspectives and insights while deliberating extensively on the following:
What Resonates from Findings of the Digital Skills Awareness Survey? Perspectives of Industry Groups about Emerging Financial Technologies.
Regulatory interventions required in the emerging economy.
The following are the outcomes of the discussions and deliberations:
1. What Resonates from Findings of the Digital Skills Awareness Survey?
Though there is a lot of buzz around FinTech, findings from the survey showed that many firms do not have the baseline requirements to innovate in their space. What we are witnessing currently is digital transformation not necessarily disruptive FinTech. The FSS needs to accelerate financial technology.
There should be structures available to enhance innovation in FinTech in the FSS; these structures include innovation labs. To achieve global competitiveness in FinTech, we need to have a plan in place and vigorously pursue the plan to achieve the global competitiveness we eagerly desire. We need to find linkages in all the innovations and put our hands together to achieve global competitiveness. We also need to take into cognizance the cyber and microfinancial risks that FinTech poses in the FSS, in addition to the challenges of consumer protection and privacy issues. However, we need to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in the marketplace.
Consequently, we need to have appropriate, proportionate and timely regulation to drive and lead the FSS to where Nigeria wants to be. FinTech needs the required regulation that will guide operations while encouraging competition in the sector. Regulation will mitigate the associated risks and challenges associated with emerging FinTech opportunity while mitigating the likely risks and developments. Regulators could use machine learning and artificial intelligence to guide the operations of the market.
Due to the exponential growth of technology in the past five years, the tendency is for the market to be ahead of regulators. However, in order not to stifle the market, regulators could have focus group discussions with FinTech operators to sound out their opinion on upcoming regulations in the sector and finetune them as appropriate before deployment.
Overall, regulators are interested in the growth of FinTech. However, to do this, regulators seek to understand the FinTech industry before proffering the required regulations. In addition, due to the large number of unlicensed operators in the FinTech
industry, regulators are concerned about the risks associated with FinTech. These risks include cyber security, data privacy and business model risks. Regulators are concerned about identifying, understanding and controlling these risks proactively.
2. Perspectives of Industry Groups about Emerging Financial Technologies and the Nigeria Financial Services Sector: Exploring Opportunities for global competitiveness.
By having engagements with operators and consumers at conferences, seminars and focus groups to deliberate on ways of deepening financial inclusion and adoption of mobile digital payments. Through the adoption of digital payments, it is possible to reach the unbanked public and provide economic inclusiveness. By deepening financial inclusion, and increasing access to credit, the poverty level in the country can be significantly reduced through the provision of micro loans, credits, health care and pensions through FinTech.
To deepen financial inclusion, payment service providers need to invest in financial literacy in the grassroots. This financial literacy is being driven by institutions such as Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF), E-Payments Providers Association of Nigeria (EPPAN), etc. To achieve global competitiveness as a country, we need to develop strategies, which are applicable to our local context and adopt technologies to meet our needs.
From a financial sector providers’ perspective, technology is available for serving the unbanked public. However, the strategic issue for operators is evaluating the cost-benefit analysis of providing these services to the unbanked public.
The underlying principle of digitalization is data. For data to be useful, data should be analysed and value derived. These data insights will provide competitive advantage. Smart data is very useful for enhancing the customer experience, cyber security, risk management, compliance and fraud analysis.
Once the survey is closed, FITC, FinTech Institute and FinTech Circle UK will publish the final report. FITC’s products presented anew to the audience were: - FITC Digital Books
- FITC Virtual Learning Courses.
- FITC E-Recruitment Portal.
- The 15 Internationally Accredited Courses.
- The upcoming FITC-CAS (FITC Competency Assessment System)
for Banks.
This event was special, in that it was Dr. Newman's last public event for the Nigerian financial system in her role as FITC’s MD/CEO. Even though she is six years away from retirement by policy, she chose to step down from office after a decade of distinguished performance during her tenure. The Thought Leadership Series 1.0, which had the theme, “Strengthening the Banking System and Facilitating Sustained Economic Growth: Roles of the Regulators, Operators and the Banking Public,” held in May 2018. The Thought Leadership Series is among some of the landmark innovations of her highly transformative tenure as MD/CEO of FITC.