DOZIE: NIGERIAN MARKET AND DIGITISATION WILL BOOST OUR PERFORMANCE
people have never heard about. We are using our mobile platform to create awareness about how people are using technology to drive and improve on agriculture. We are using technology to improve life in healthcare sector. For them to do it themselves, the cost to them would be huge. So that is how we play a role in trying to build capacity and show the world that it is not only in Kenya that technology can be used very well to transform businesses. Nigeria can do it better and we must show the world that. I like it the way, not just Diamond Bank, others organisations that have the platform are exposing what Nigerians are doing in the market place.
Will you say that informed your decision to hold the largest technology forum next year?
Most of the tech conferences you find are in places like Kenya not as big as in here and two weeks ago, we just held conference as Africa as the Platform. We need to have more of that in Nigeria because without Nigeria, Africa does not exist. But Nigeria is also doing a lot in the tech space. We probably have the largest payment infrastructure in Africa and nobody knows about it and we are not talking about it. We need to talk about it. We need to tell the world that we can walk around Lagos with just mobile phone and you don’t need to carry cash. You only need to carry a card and that is what we are doing through the services we are providing. I hardly walk around with cash, I hardly have my debit or credit card because I can go to an ATM and collect cash initiating with my mobile phone. We go to a shop and use QR code to make payment, I can go to a man on the street and use USSD entry to pay them and they get value immediately and not tomorrow and without a POS or card. So those are some of the things that we need to scale up. We need to also all come together and change some legislation so that we can scale all these technology because you are seeing pockets of success in silos, we need to scale because that is what lead to success and that will now help us take advantage of it.
You are known for driving technology, and one of the best APPs in the market currently, but competition is stiff out there, do you have plans to upgrade your Apps and remain above competition?
Certainly yes; the only thing that is constant in today’s world is change. Customers are changing, customers’ needs are changing, and so for us, it is how we can do things better. Our business is no longer banking; it is how to collaborate with people to provide you with better services. If you take our SMEs for instance, it is not about providing services but making you successful. It is about being part of your journey. And so, our App is going to evolve so that, one, it can collaborate with more partners and can be more of an integral part of our customer journey. And you have to also take into consideration that our customers are also the 15 year olds. In the next five years, you will have people, whose lives will just have to be on tech and we must also seamlessly integrate in their lives and you cannot be separated from what they are used to. So now, if you what to open an account, it has to be online, if somebody is developing a solution, it must be able to integrate Diamond Bank code so that people will be able to open an account immediately because nobody is going to walk into a bank and open a business account any more. Individuals do not walk into branch and open an account. Businesses are going to say, I want to open an account and I need to do it online. I need to upload my file and it needs to be secure and start running immediately and I start getting payment.
The private sector is striving to make banking enjoyable by everybody. But there are some things that government can do to complement efforts of the private sector and make banking easier. What are those things that are beyond the private sector that government can provide?
The biggest one is looking at Data laws. The government can look at regulation around data. I think we have all the ingredients to actually leapfrog and scale. Right now, digital payment is competing against cash and if you are competing cash, you know people are going to use cash. Meanwhile, cash is expensive, it is fraught with Know your customer (KYC) issues, lack of transparency and cash also slows commerce. Moving a million Naira in cash is not as fast as moving a million Naira in electronic payment. And so, we need to change some laws around that area. The new KYC laws have been great on deposit side. Anybody can open account and do at least N150,000. That is fantastic. But we need to do that also on the lending side, so it is not just only on the BVN if you want to borrow N1, it is BVN if you want to borrow above N2, 000 because the BVN acquisition is still expensive and not convenient for the man that is leaving in the village right now. Those are some of the things that we need to change in some of those laws.
All these your efforts, how will they translate to more dividends and returns for your shareholders?
We are not trying to be the biggest bank. We are just trying to be the most efficient platform that can provide services to millions of Nigeria. My vision is like I want to have 20 million people on our platform by 2020. Twenty million active people on my platform by 2020 and I am providing services for them, will be cost effective, and also my income stream will be diversified, which means that when next there is economic shocks, we won’t have to suffer as we did in the past. Besides, people just want a sustainable growth and that is what we are trying to build in the retail strategy. Generally, Nigeria has gone through a challenging period, this is the first deep recession we have had in many years. And I think the economy has been resilient.
We have seen stability in the exchange rate. We are beginning to see the right movement in inflation, and we hope that will continue and if we can create a platform where we can have some changes in some of the laws from 2018 and beyond, we will begin to see robust growth in the economy. And for us, our focus now is Nigeria. So we are very excited about the future.