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Nigeria’s financial technology companies have a huge potential to transform the capital markets and effectively build a digital economy.
This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, Mr. Temi Popoola, at the 2021 National Workshop of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers he was represented by the Divisional Head, Trading Business at NGX, Jude Chiemeka.
Fintechs, he argued, should be viewed as possible partners to conventional capital market infrastructure providers like NGX, rather than rivals.
Popoola said, “As Africa’s largest economy and with a population of 200 million — 40 %of which is financially excluded, Nigeria is classified as a developing fintech economy compared to its more mature global peers such as the UK, Singapore, Australia, Sweden, and India.
“EY estimates that Nigerian fintech revenues will reach $543m by 2022, driven by increasing smartphone penetration, unbanked populations, and a focused regulatory drive to increase financial inclusion and cashless payments.
“In line with the evolution of fintech in other markets, fintech activity in Nigeria started in payments and moved into other areas. Consumer lending — and, increasingly, asset management — are focal points for fintech activity.”
He added the NGX would keep building its solutions and innovation centre to look into projects that use distributed ledgers, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence to increase financial inclusion and market access.
Due to a violation of the central bank’s directive published in a circular, the CBN was last week granted a motion that ordered the interim suspension of bank accounts belonging to some online investment and trading platforms.
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