Group strategises to boost operations, engages membership sectors

Fintech Association of Nigeria (FAN), in a bid to support its members to weather the storm of economic and business impacts of COVID-19, has engaged in strategic discussions with 15 sectors that make up its 126 member institutions:

These institutions include: banks, startups, insurance, financial services, payment, incubation and acceleration, lending, consulting, ICT, blockchain, investment and venture capital, legal, media, education and professional bodies.

According to the Association President, Dr. Segun Aina, and the Management led by Dr. Babatunde Obrimah, the engagement would help prepare members for post-COVID-19 challenges and opportunities.

The engagement was done through nine zoom sessions with each session hosting members from particular sectors.

The group said the immense acceptance and partnership the association fosters with regulators came to the fore as the two of the foremost financial services regulatory agencies in Nigeria also participated in the engagements.

It said: “The occasion presented the stakeholders of the association the opportunities to assess the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses, take holistic views on what should be done to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and sustain the growth of the sector.

“The participants across the board believe that the country is still far away in the digital adoption journey as COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the lack of digital readiness of the economy.

“Participants identified some of the challenges the sector faces as poor infrastructure (power supply and telecoms services), high cost of data and internet tariff, low volume of transactions, low productivity of workers, insecurity, increase in cyber threats and frauds, lack of structured data necessary for making an informed decision amongst others.”

The group listed some of the survival strategies proposed by participants to include need for synergy and more focused interactions amongst stakeholders, businesses, professionals, and indigenous funding support for startups, capacity building, digital education and literacy programmes for professionals, advocacy programme, the establishment of centralised fintech database, ecosystem cybersecurity strategy amongst others.

Participants also urged regulators in the country to deepen engagement with the sector through partnership on research, early involvement of operators in the process of drafting policies.

They also stressed the need to review KYC policies and make them more flexible to meet dynamic business needs, digitalise and streamline licensing processes ad well as ensure flexibility of licensing and capitalisation cost.

Furthermore, they tasked regulators on the establishment of a centralised database for lending and foster progressive interaction with the sector.

Aina also added that stakeholders must cooperate, co-create, collaborate and compete to make the sector more vibrant.