What is the outlook for TeamApt in the next five years?

Regardless of how it unveils, a revolution in finances has already started and regulations are the biggest obstacles that fintech innovators face today. What is your assessment of the current regulatory environment and your suggestions for improvement? The banking and finance industry is the backbone of the nation’s commerce and regulation is very important.

Regulation should foster growth and control malpractices that will hinder the growth of the industry. One of the ways regulation does this is by licensing players activities.

The apex bank is doing a good work in protecting the industry and ensuring that only serious players with value to offer are allowed in the industry. The methodology today is cash deposit for the period while the license is being granted. This often filters a lot of unserious players but it unfortunately also precludes otherwise nascent companies who do not have the financial muscle. I believe the position of protecting the industry should not be compromised however other ways to encourage serious players without the financial muscle can be encouraged.

Startups can, for example, make a case for an exception if they satisfy these conditions: a year old company and employs more than five Nigerians in the period of 12 months, that can demonstrate that industry players (e.g banks) are using their solution in a different capacity other than one that requires licensing and can get the bank to attest to this fact, that can show evidence of tax payment and revenues in books, a fidelity guarantee and professional indemnity from a reputable insurance firm to guarantee against losses dues to fraud and errors. If an intention of licensing regulation is to ensure only serious players are licensed, these steps can achieve the same objective without the financial hurdle.

The importance of removing obstacles in fintech innovation cannot be overemphasised. How can the fintech industry convince government to make space for innovative technological products in the financial market? I think some of the government’s policies have been great. The cashless policy is a good initiative that reduces the cost of cash handling while Our mission is to facilitate financial happiness for banks, people and businesses. We believe happiness is the goal in life and money helps people to be happy. Banks are at the centre of money in the world and this is why we set out with serving banks. We help banks to deploy web and mobile banking applications for their customers so that the customers can find it easier to pay, collect, manage or grow their money.

In the next few months, we will be serving businesses and we will allow them to do same. In the next five years, we would have connected all the banks, businesses and people in a symbiotic and frictionless ecosystem. Our vision is to see that the friction of people dealing with money is gone completely, the bottom of the pyramids are financially included and people are generally happier by using our systems and infrastructure to deal with their finances.