" ITREALMS: Banks, Fintech’ll boost financial inclusion - Fanawopo says

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Thursday, February 16, 2017

Banks, Fintech’ll boost financial inclusion - Fanawopo says

The Managing Director and Chief executive officer of eMaginations, the organizer of Ennovators Breakfast Series [EBS], Mr. Sola Fanawopo, has task Nigerian banks to partner operatives in the Financial Technology (FinTech), reports ITRealms.

According to him, Nigeria is not an exception in the FinTech upsurge, hence said the global investment in FinTech is reported to have reached as high as $80 billion between 2010 and 2016.

Financial technology, he said, has gradually seeped into the growth strategies of traditional banks, expert have expressed concern that the two components would need to work together in order to drive financial inclusion in the sector.

“For some time after the global and local financial crisis, traditional banks have laid emphasis on regaining customers’ trust. I am happy that banks have realised the potential of FinTech and are now slowly joining the startups in the race. That is why it is heartening to know that a Nigerian call itself FinTech bank” he said.

The basis for this concern, Fanawopo said, is stemmed from the global best practices where Fintech, the term coined for financial services technology, has become an extremely fast-growing industry worldwide. Its growth has enabled banks in Europe and the US to innovate and develop products to suit customers’ lifestyles.

He explained that in large part, FinTech firms are becoming “disruptors” for good, and that the secret to maintaining the banking industry is to nurture the startups through which new technology is birthed. To grow the banking industry, he asked, “Should banks engage FinTechs for competitive advantage, should banks build, partners or acquire FinTechs?”

According to him, bank chiefs and FinTech founders such as Muhammad Jibrin, MD/CEO, of SunTrust Bank, Yele Okeremi, MD/CEO of Precise Financial Systems, John Obaro, MD/CEO of  Systemspecs and Uzoma Dozie, Group MD/CEO, Diamond Bank, would join other speakers at the Oriental Hotel, venue of EBS in March to examine how banks and FinTech should relate. “This edition of EBS will examine if the banks and FinTechs are friends or foes”, he said.

Fanawopo said EBS now in its seventh year is a quarterly cerebral breakfast event conceived to bring the Dreamers, Drivers, and Doers (3D) of technology business in ICT industry across Africa together with the objective of sharing key information that would promote business, impact lives, and birth new business relationships.

“As technology evolves, everything in the world is changing. The way banks, telcos, insurers and others sectors service customers is changing. This will continue to change as technology innovations emerge. EBS examines the preparedness of African firms to meet these changes”.


Ayo Midele/GEE
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