April 13, 2018

The E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (EPPAN) on Friday urged financial service providers to seek new and innovative technology solutions to make inclusion at the bottom of the pyramid possible and profitable.

The President, EPPAN, Mrs Onajite Regha, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the association had discovered that those at the grassroots were seeking financial services.

Regha said that using digital channels would enable the service providers get these services across to them easily.

“The truth is that banks cannot continue to build brick-and-mortar branches in order to address the existing gap in the financial services infrastructure.

“The nation must look for new and innovative financial technology solutions that will make financial inclusion at the bottom of the pyramid possible and profitable.

“With the reach and penetration, the telecoms companies have attained, financial service providers can ride on that to serve a significant population of the rural and economically-deprived Nigerians.

“We have over 125 million Nigerians who have mobile phones and with this, payment operators can translate these numbers into successes for financial services reach,’’ she said.

The EPPAN president commended the Federal Government for its commitment to achieving 80 per cent financial inclusions for adult population by the year 2020.

She lauded the recently signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) as an innovative development.

Regha said that a successful collaboration between the two government parastatals would go a long way in getting to the 41.6 per cent of the adult population (40.1 million Nigerians) that are underserved and financially-excluded.

She said that E-PPAN had created awareness nationwide on how consumers should embrace the digital economy and leverage the use of e-payment channels in their daily lives.

“Our experience round the 36 states of the country shows that those at the grassroots are looking for financial services and using these digital channels they can get these services easier.’’

The EPPAN president said it would continue to assist the CBN to achieve financial inclusion for the adult population across the nation.

She said the association would review existing policies; recommend and advise necessary government agencies and private sector participants to play their parts in NCC and CBN collaboration.

NAN reports that the NCC/CBN MoU is to boost mobile money service penetration and financial inclusion as a digital transformation process targeted at governance and transformation of key services sectors.

The level of financial inclusion is put at 48 per cent presently; with experts saying that effective implementation of the initiative will cause an increase to 80 per cent by 2020.

They say it will also facilitate a more robust payment system.