Efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to deepen access to funds to help in financial intermediation across the country has led to a new directive to commercial banks in the country to share customers data with Fintechs. This according to the apex bank will help to increase access to financial services and provide better services to customers.
Speaking on the importance of this measure, the Director, Payment System Management at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Musa Jimoh said this will hasten tech adoption and also ease bottlenecks in financial transactions within the system. He made this known during the virtual FirstBank FinTech Summit 4.0 held in Lagos with the theme: “How Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence will Disrupt FinTech in Nigeria” yesterday.
He said the directive was in line with the apex bank’s five- year vision and open banking regime policy that would require banks to open their account base to Fintechs to bring more people into the financial system.
Read also:The Finalists for Ecobank’s 2020 Fintech Challenge Announced
He noted that the apex bank view Fintechs as technology-enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on the provision of financial services.
Fintech firms like Quick-teller, MoniDey, Baxi, PocketMoni, Unified Payments, Paga, Cellulant, to mention but a few are now part of the financial system, offering banking services to both the banked and unbanked within the population.
The companies are helping consumers in bill payments, retail payments, airtime purchases and use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions. They also collect payment from all spectrums of the population – whether banked or not. He concluded that the CBN is also boosting the use of artificial intelligence in banking, and promoting digital payment access all sectors of the economy.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry