The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated its commitment to further stimulate the development and growth in the Fintech sector through regulatory interventions.

Speaking during his keynote address, at the 2023 NITRA Financial Technology (Fintech) Forum with the theme “Harnessing Nigeria’s Fintech Potentials: Challenges and Opportunities” held in Lagos, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, who was represented by Lagos Zonal Controller, Henry Ojiokpota, said that Fintech, which is an emerging industry that leverages on technology to support several financial services such as mobile banking, borrowing, investment, cryptocurrency among others, is gradually revolutionising Nigeria’s financial ecosystem as it posed a great disruption to the conventional financial system.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission, as the apex regulatory agency of the communications industry, will continue to support the Fintech sector in hamessing its enormous potentials as well as overcoming the challenges identified. This can be achieved through adequate provision of secure infrastructure and USSD channels that enable delivery of Digital Financial Services delivery in efficient ways.

“The NCC is also keen on maintaining minimum standards Quality of Service (QOS), for an uninterrupted network that will boost the sector. In support of this objective, the Commission has executed the Memorandum of Understanding with CBN on driving payment systems and financial inclusion, which is in line with the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2025.

“Further, the Commission is playing an important role in harnessing the potentials of Fintech through maximum support for Fintech policies, enforcing regulations, and strengthening collaborations with relevant authorities such as the CBN and other stakeholders. Beyond this, the NCC is also promoting incubation and sound practices of Fintech firms and highly secured platforms to further enhance the development of the Fintech ecosystem as well as the digital economy space in general. These measures would ultimately enable the attainment of the objectives of the Nigerian Startup Bill, particularly in the Financial Services sector, and maximize the benefits of Fintech while mitigating the risks involved”, NCC EVC explained.

Speaking also at the event, Moniepoint MFB, a Fintech platform in Nigeria, restated its commitment to driving financial inclusion through innovative products that address payment challenges in the country.

Head of Partnerships at Moniepoint Inc, Efemena Ogie, it was in line with this commitment that the company developed an innovation of PoS alert for mobile transfers.

According to him, this is helping businesses using Moniepoint’s PoS machines to receive instant credit alerts when their customers make transfers to their accounts. He said this has also taken the customers’ burden of waiting for merchants to receive alerts before they can leave.

Explaining the innovation, Ogie said: “We had to think outside the box to make life easy when you want to make payments. If you go to a supermarket and you forget your card and you want to make a payment, you will have to make a transfer.

“But at some point, you have to wait until the merchant gets an alert before you can leave. You can just get angry at that point because your account has been debited.

“We saw that there is a better way to do that, so what we did was that instead of waiting, when you do a transfer, the alert should just hit the PoS, and that transaction will be seen as a card transaction and the merchant is able to print your receipt right there.”