The CEO of First Bank Nigeria Plc, Adesola Adeduntan delivering his welcome address at the summit on Wednesday.
First Bank of Nigeria Plc has held its third annual summit to explore the opportunities and practical solutions available in financial technology for solving of real problems associated with its customers and the financial services industry being an integral part of the Nigerian economy.
The integrate Fintech Summit tagged ‘Banking+Tech=Solving Real Problems’ took place on Wednesday at the Grand Ballroom of the Oriental hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos amidst pomp and pageantry.
In his welcome address at the summit, the Chief Executive Officer of First Bank Plc, Adesola Adeduntan noted that the purpose of the Summit was to bring together thought leaders in the Fintech space for result-driven discourse on financial technology that will proffer solutions needed to shape the future of banking.
He stressed that customer experience and innovation are key in the way FirstBank satisfies its customers, adding that, as a leading banking solutions provider, the bank has continued to set the pace in the financial services industry by bringing up new initiatives to deliver good standards of financial products.
“As a bank, the key areas of interest to us, amongst others, are propositions around e-business and Digital Offering, Agent Banking, Wholesale or Transaction Banking Product Suite, Retail and Consumer Lending and SME Productivity.”
“Today, as an institution, we have more than 8 million people using our USSD platforms, more than 3 million people on our First mobile App and over 35,000 First Money agents spread across the country which is our own contribution to assist the country in addressing financial inclusion. But there’s still a lot that can be done, leveraging technology. As a country, if we don’t do this, the future certainly won’t be bright.”
The FirstBank CEO further explained that part of the reason why the bank says it is woven into the fabric of Nigeria and Africa is because it places equal importance on both profitability and economic growth. ‘Everything is not about profitability. It is more about how to build a more resilient and financially inclusive country that we all can be proud of,’ he added.
In the key note address on the theme, the guest speaker and founder of Swifta Systems and Services, Victor Asemota noted that one of the most abused words in both banking and technology is innovation which he defined as solving human problems with tools, processes and people.
The Keynote Speaker and CEO of Swifta Systems and Services, Victor Asemota delivering address at the summit on Wednesday.
He said Harvard University students have listed three types of innovations to be efficiency innovations, sustaining innovations and disruptive innovations but the most important of all to him is a disruptive innovation which is often misunderstood as people believe it is about competition and killing what already exists, unknown to them that it actually means paradigm shift.
He said what will actually replace banking in the future will not look exactly like banking at the moment, adding that banks and banking as an innovation has moved from being a place where people visit to what people do and experience daily.
While stressing that the greatest ideas do not come from profit organisations, Asemota noted that the job for both fintech and banking is to look at what people really do and provide them the services that solve their problems.
He said his firm, OmniBranches has been able to process 202,791 transactions in the past 2 months, and the main backing has been solving problems for people who, he believes, buy empathy, not the service.
He said the largest fintech in Brazil, Bluebird, was founded in 2013 having discovered a key financial problem in the country. He said the company was set up to address the problems and deliver better customer service.
‘As at the time the firm came to the Google Launch pad in 2017, by solving real problems for every customer that call its line, the company’s value had grown to over $2 billion with 3 million customers base while about 11 million customers still waited to come onboard despite being a one-product institution at the time.’
He said the Success story of the largest fintech firm in Brazil has taught him that no matter the technology that is being deployed, it is people that matter as technology is just a tool and the key factor making the difference in Brazil, Nigeria and Ghana is people who solve real problems for others.
Talking about the opportunities available in Solar energy, Mr Asemota said about 98 million homes in Sub Saharan Africa that are currently off grid are buying solar products at breakneck speed and that solar power actually has solutions to most of the existing problems in Africa.
L-R Oluwatoyin Aina, Group Head Energy & International Oil Trading, FirstBank; Victor Asemota, Founder, Swifta System & Services; Dayo Ademola, Head of Innovation, EFInA; Lola Ekugo, Head, Digital Innovation Lab, FirstBank; Deepanker Rustagi, CEO Vconnect & Omnibiz at the summit on Wednesday.
Explaining why start-ups experience huge difficulty in Nigeria, Mr Asemota said: “Investors fund viable businesses not the ones trying to survive because most FinTech entreprenuers are in business for survival instead of business building”
“The future is actually here but not evenly distributed yet. To know what the future holds now, just look at what rich people do now because all what is exclusive to them now is going to be available to everyone else in the future,” he added.
In her own contribution, the founder of Smarter Grid International, Mrs Heather Onoh said her experience has shown that the banks don’t really want to associate with small businesses which have great profitability when put altogether.
She stressed that energy should have been added to the theme of the summit because to her, energy is very important as one couldn’t achieve much without it. ‘I wonder how banks can bring financial services closer to the people without huge renewable energy in the mix,’ she added.
Explaining the role First bank had played in making banking experience closer and easier for people, the group executive in charge of e-Business and retail products at the bank, Mr. Chuma Ezirim said: ‘At First Bank, it is mobile first as we believe that in the emerging market, digitalisation is going to play a very big role.’
He said the bank had taken a very big opportunity in the USSD space which enables a user to access services without data, adding that, as a way of complementing the USSD, the bank has also developed other channels that will help the entire industry achieve the target set by the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele which is 95% financial inclusion by 2024.
‘The good thing about the First Bank digital banking strategy is that no matter the channel we are using for our mobile services, our model remains that customers should be able to access our services from the comfort of their homes and offices which is the reason why most of our channels are self-directed.’
‘For customers that access our services, we have made sure that journey is simple with transparent pricing and adequate security irrespective of whatever channels the customers have used. Hence, today, we have about 18 million customers’ accounts which has continued to grow heavily.’
Speaking further, the FirstBank executive said that First Bank, in 2017, became the second financial institution behind the Standard Bank of South Africa to issue 10 million cards and that in 2019, the bank has also become one of the very few financial service providers in the world to provide a debit card linked to four currencies: Naira, Dollars, Pounds and Euro.
Mr Ezirim said in addition to about 8.4 million users on its USSD, FirstBank carries out two million transactions valued at 7 billion naira daily and that, despite having presence in the 36 states of the federation, the bank plans to create more financial service centres in every village and town across the country.
‘In addition, we have also collaborated well with the Fintechs. We took a gamble in 2011 on financial technology and it paid off as today, our fintech platform has issued about 25 million cards and it is being used by 17 banks in Nigeria’.
The summit which witnessed a large audience also featured three masterclasses after the main lecture as well as an interactive session where the key note speaker provided cogent answers to various questions raised by the audience. The first masterclass was on solving problems associated with business, the second focused on solving lifestyle problems while the third class discussed regulatory, legal and security problems.
Samson Oyedeyi
