AI will bridge Africa’s $120b lending gap, says Aguele
29 March 2023 |
4:41 am
Artificial Intelligence has been described as a key component that will help accelerate Africa’s drive towards achieving open finance and bridging the continent’s $120 billion lending gap.
VerifyMe CEO/Co-Founder, Esigie Aguele
Artificial Intelligence has been described as a key component that will help accelerate Africa’s drive towards achieving open finance and bridging the continent’s $120 billion lending gap.
Co-founder/Chief Executive Officer, VerifyMe Nigeria, a digital identity and eKYC company based in Lagos, Esigie Aguele, made the projection, while speaking on TV business news programme, Power Lunch West Africa on CNBC.
Aguele, who called for increased focus and investments within the space, said: “The opportunities that can be harnessed from AI in Africa are enormous. One of the exciting things about where Africa is positioning is that we are at the cusp of an emerging economy in terms of powering open finance and open banking.
“With the advent of AI and all it has to offer, especially in the area of predictive analytics products, this will have a trigger effect on the financial market by enabling historically financially excluded people to get secure loans and other financial services due to the availability of consumer analytics.”
“Looking at the financial sector alone, we are looking at the potential of the technology to bridge a market of about $120 billion in lending. If you look at use cases outside the financial sector, you will see that AI is fast becoming a critical enabler that is delivering innovation, scale and efficiency across the board.
“In the eKYC space within which we operate, AI’s ability to read identity cards, power facial recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) not only helps achieve compliance but also supports remote services. There are several other use cases across other sectors,” he added.
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