Mr Chika Nwosu, the managing director of PalmPay Nigeria, believes the recent directives by the Central Bank of Nigeria to [some] financial technology companies to pause their customer onboarding processes aims to strengthen the sector.
Mixed reactions trailed the regulators’ directive that FinTech companies, particularly, PalmPay, Opay, Moniepoint and Kuda, should suspend their customer onboarding process, following moves by the Nigerian government to clampdown on cryptocurrency traders.
However, while appearing as a guest of the Channels TV Business Roundtable, Mr. Nwosu, gave valuable expert insights on regulatory concerns surrounding the FinTech ecosystem.
In his words:
“Whatever that is happening with regulation is for the good of the FinTech space in Nigeria. Initially, when we started, there was an issue of trust. However, I can tell you now that the last 1 year after the cashless policy, has seen the trust start to grow”.
The Managing Director of PalmPay emphasized the unwavering support the Fintech company has for regulators in regulating the FinTech ecosystem, underscoring the fact that all the regulators want to do is make the services of strong players in the FinTech space, such as PalmPay, better.
On the ease of doing business and how it affects PalmPay, he said:
“Doing business in Nigeria for us is not easy but Nigerians are embracing our App and digital payment”.
When quizzed about the problem of failed transfers, Nwosu said;
“Every institution has its business strategy and infrastructure, for us and the majority of FinTechs, we have a structure that makes transactions seamless”.
Reemphasizing the recent onboarding policy by the regulator, he stated that PalmPay agreed with the regulators on some grey areas that need to be put in place.
Reassuring customers that there was no issue with using PalmPay, he emphasized,
“If PalmPay completes their own today, we will start onboarding today”.
Addressing the question about PalmPay not having a walk-in physical location for customers to go to and resolve some pressing customer concerns, he answered,
“There are locations in Ikeja GRA and Opebi to lay complaints”.
Techeconomy recalled that PalmPay had disclosed its walk-in offices in locations across 25 states in Nigeria while some customer complaints are been addressed via their social media channels.
On the issue of trust and the security of the PalmPay app, the MD said; “There is no day you won’t see on our app boldly written that we are licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and our deposits are insured by the Nigeria Deposits Insurance Corporation (NDIC). PalmPay is here to stay”.
Techeconomy gathered that as of the time of this interview, no fintech platform has completed any of the requirements set out by the regulators as no onboarding took place then in the entire ecosystem.
Watch the interview on YouTube:
