‘Financial inclusion, digital innovation now our target’

The quest to boost financial inclusion in the country through digital innovation may have received added support as the Committee of E-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH) has pledged to promote digital solutions targeted at the bottom of the pyramid.

The bottom of the pyramid, in the financial system measurement has the unbanked, underbanked and vulnerable people, who by their circumstances cannot access financial service offerings seamlessly and at affordable price.

But CeBIH,  made up of the upper echelon of electronic business and digital banking practitioners in all banks in Nigeria, said it is now determined to do more in a bid to expedite access to financial services across the country.

The group noted that its major and most important objective is the promotion of electronic banking services in line with “global best practices”, also include driving the adoption through right policies, standards, technologies and public awareness programmes.

The newly elected Chairman of CeBIH, Stanley Jacob, stated this in his acceptance speech after the election of new executive of the group in Lagos, on Thursday.

Stanley, who is also the Head of Consumer Distribution at Ecobank Nigeria, said the new executive will pursue three broad agenda- financial inclusion, digital security and strengthened collaboration among industry stakeholders.

He noted that CeBIH, under his leadership, will work tirelessly with other stakeholders to reduce financial exclusion which currently is over 40 percent in Nigeria as well as bridge the wide digital divide in the country.

“At CeBIH, we will actively collaborate with industry to provide the needed financial services at the right pricing to the bottom of the pyramid. We will also ensure adequate capacity building for all stakeholders to equip them in tackling the exclusion challenge.

“CeBlH will pool industry resources and work with the regulators to promote an industry approach for combating cyber-security and payment frauds.

Financial literacy campaigns and robust customer education will also be a key tool to achieving this.

“This new Executive Council will strengthen collaboration by promoting the Shared Agency Network Facility (SANEF) with a view to ensuring that the expected benefits are delivered to consumer. There will also be partnerships with other financial institutions (OFIs) and FinTechs.”