LBS to promote growth in financial inclusion

The financial sector constantly seeks new and seamless ways to provide services to the global population, just as the increase in the use of technology in the financial industry (fintech) may have filled the void created by hitherto inaccessible financial services.

To this end, the sustainable and inclusive digital financial services initiative of the Lagos Business School (LBS), will hold a two-week art exhibition slated for August 16, to present the result of a new digital financial inclusion report titled, “The Consumer Segmentation Framework.”

Financial inclusion strives to address and proffer solutions to the constraints that exclude people from participating in the financial sector.

The launch and exhibition will provide an opportunity for stakeholders of the financial service industry to experience and learn more about the different persona of Nigerians, who live day to day without financial services.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Research Fellow, Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services, LBS, Immanuel Umukoro, said the exhibition will help key stakeholders better appreciate and come to terms with the reality of the audience that they seek to serve.

He said: “Our evidence-based approach employs scientific and analytical methods to acquire and explore consumer and operator data, from which we uncover insights, which drive innovative product development.

These are not just economic in nature but consumer-centric, and will also spur reforms that are able to catalsze the digital financial services ecosystem in Nigeria.”

Speaking on the exhibition, Co-founder and Director, Video Art Network Lagos (VAN Lagos), Oyinda Fakeye, said: “Art has been described as helping to hold a mirror up to society, reflecting its interests and concerns while at the same time challenging its ideologies and preconceptions.

Fakeye, who also doubles as the curator of the art exhibition, said the power of using audio-visual realism to portray the customer segmentation profile is such that will allow stakeholders connect deeply with the personas that they seek to engage, in a bid to create fit-for-purpose interventions.

This year, focus is on the economics of financial inclusion and customer segmentation.

The economics of financial inclusion is a six-paper series’ study that looks at the nexus between financial inclusion and key macro-economic variables and how financial inclusion contributes to economic growth and development.

The Customer Segmentation Framework (CSF), an artistic presentation of the findings of the study introduces the different customer persona of the unserved and underbanked to aid intervention efforts.

However, the report is aimed at making financial services accessible at affordable costs to all individuals and businesses, irrespective of net worth and size.

The report, which is being launched by the sustainable and inclusive digital financial services initiative, in partnership with Dalberg, and with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, undertook a deep study of the underbanked and unserved consumer segments to uncover insights and present data, which can aid the achievement of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) goal of 80 per cent financial inclusion by 2020.