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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is finalizing the exposure draft of the financial services regulatory sandbox for release to the industry.
This was disclosed by the Director, Payments System Management Department, Musa Jimoh at the maiden edition of the Regtech Africa Roundtable (RAR) – Dialogue Series with the theme: Money Re-imagined in Crisis: Did we just miss the opportunity to demonize cash?
He stated that the establishment of the Financial Services Innovators (FSI) and the planned release of the detailed guidelines are part of the initiatives being taken by the apex bank to increase confidence on digital financial services innovation and adoption.
Speaking as one of the distinguished panellists, Musa Jimoh who was ably represented by Akinwunmi Olubukola Akinniyi (Assistant Director), provided lots of insights on key policy implementation initiated by the CBN long before the pandemic with a significant socio-economic impact that laid the foundation for sustained growth of the National payment system.
While acknowledging the foresight of the apex bank in the initiation of the payment system vision 2020 in 2007 and the associated impact on both the Cashless policy initiated in 2012 and the BVN project launched in 2014, he highlighted the impacts of the BVN on electronic KYC and how it’s helped to empower and support fintechs to rapidly increase access to finance.
He also highlighted the foresight of the CBN in the area of critical National payment infrastructure development initiated as early as 2010, to stimulate and support various types of innovation across the value chain, as all part of the initiatives taken by the apex bank to leverage technology to address social issues of inclusion.
While assuring that the apex bank is poised to take full advantage of all these initiatives – including the Cashless policy with the pre-planned rollout of the Nationwide implementation before the pandemic, he stated that the desire of the bank is to see innovators taking a lead role in driving innovations by bridging the gap to address existing challenges.
He further reiterated the commitment of the apex bank in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the loan to deposit ratio policy which is aimed at improving access to credit through the banking industry as ancillary initiatives in support of social financial inclusion.
On key initiatives taken by the apex bank to deliberately encourage adoption of digital financial services, Mr. Jimoh highlighted the following as some of the proactive steps taken to ensure increased confidence on digital financial services: the reduction in most electronic payment charges in the new guide to bank charges, the recent reduction in the dispute resolution period, support for more contactless payment options (QR code, etc) and the setup of the regulatory financial services sandbox – with the exposure draft of the framework being finalized.
The Regtech Africa Roundtable (RAR) provides a great platform for leading industry practitioners, tech innovators, serial entrepreneurs and regulators to share insights from an informed position on contemporary innovative regulatory issues to enhance effectiveness, innovation and growth.
© Regtech Africa 2020
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