Important Takeaways from the 6th Nigeria Fintech Week

Sixth edition of Nigeria Fintech Week hosts Players to Industry Forum, Masterclasses, Pitches & more

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The 6th edition of the Nigeria Fintech Week (NFW2022) held in Lagos from October 25th to 28th, 2022. The event brought key fintech players, regulators, top brands, tech enthusiasts, and professionals together for a week of insightful, fun and engaging activities at the Landmarks Centre in Lagos. It was organized by the Fintech Association of Nigeria and Fintech Associates Limited.

The theme for NFW2022 was ‘Navigating the Next Normal: Sustainable Impacts in Fintech, E-Government & Emerging Technologies’ and this successfully put the spotlight on a lot of critical issues faced by the fintech ecosystem in Nigeria.

While he gave the opening address, Ade Bajomo, President, FintechNGR, stressed the importance of the event theme stating that “digital transformation without sustainability and impact on the wider ecosystem is irrelevant to the dynamics of the 21st century”.

In addition, Bajomo posited that the Nigerian Fintech industry had been a trailblazer in the digitally transforming world but that there was still immense room for growth and “new innovations” in sectors like AgriTech, Insurtech, EdTech, PropTech, and Blockchain adoption.

In his words, “despite significant strides in payments, lending and WealthTech, we are still largely scathing the surface when it comes to deep technology revolution”.

From the networking breakfast, exhibition tours, panel sessions and product pitches by startups to fireside chats, masterclasses, Fintech Industry Forum and a raffle draw which saw one of the attendees winning a Huawei notepad, #NFW2022 was an interesting experience for both online and on-site participants.

One of the attendees, David Odeh shared on LinkedIn: “I’m happy I was able to attend the Nigeria Fintech Week. The largest industry event in Africa that fosters innovation, business alliances and ecosystem transformation. It was a tremendous networking opportunity for me because practically every participant in the fintech sector was present.”

Another attendee, Mmerichukwu Anosike posted, “I attended the Nigeria Fintech Week 2022 held in Lagos where I got to hear from seasoned personnel like Chuta Chimezie and others, who talked about the impact of web3 tech, from #cryptocurrency to #nfts and others, especially how they impact our quality of life with amazing products and services.”

82 speakers from different countries shared relevant insights in 32 keynote addresses, fireside chats and masterclasses.

Here are some of the most important takeaways:

“The problem with monetizing an African consumer is really about identifying the core problems and creating fitting solutions. Once that is done, traction will follow.” – Ajibade Laolu-Adewale, Group Head, Digital Solutions & Fintechs, Wema Bank

“Ecosystem play is critical. Re-inventing the wheel doesn’t create value, it is best to leverage already available systems than to start from scratch. That way you reduce your costs and your profit margins can go up.” – ‘DeRemi Atanda, MD, Remita

“I don’t think that for us to scale as an industry, POS is the only solution – to withdraw cash apart from ATM, to transact, and do business. There are services we can put in the hands of merchants that are lower than the cost of POS.” – Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, ED, FSI

“Fintech and Regtech have an important role to play in the digitization of an economy and shouldn’t be shied away from or seen as something to put up barriers against. Instead, they should be embraced and accommodated as part of the strategy for a digital economy.” – Andrew Davis, IFC

“Nigeria’s Fintech market remains heavy in innovation around payments but there is a need to onboard MSMEs at the centre of our ecosystem and motivate them to stay and carry out business online.” – Lee Maina, Chief Solution Architect, Southern Africa region, Huawei

“Security is a big concern for fintechs and financial institutions, however, it is a shared responsibility. Therefore, fintechs and businesses need to deploy a security-first approach in developing any application or technology. Most of the attacks and breaches in recent times aren’t infrastructure related. Cloud providers can indeed secure the infrastructure and ensure there are firewalls but if there are vulnerabilities in the application, you can still be hacked.” – Stephen Okoye, CTO, inq. Digital.

The impact of the Nigeria Fintech Week this year was even bigger because of the powerful sponsors that continue to back the event.NFW2022’s impressive line-up of sponsors include; Mastercard, Zenith Bank, Huawei, Interswitch, eTranzact, Remita, 9PSB, Meta, NowNow, SAS, Banwo & Ighodalo, Branch, Binance, Alat, Soft Alliance, Wema Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Udo Udoma & Belo Osagie, Sterling Bank, AFEX, inq. Digital, Ecobank, The ROOM, FairMoney, MainOne, PayMasta, O’dua Investment Ltd, Kora, LBank, CoinNewsExtraTv, ARM, Maxut, Jackson, Etti & Edu, Alliance Law Firm, AELEX, Convexity, NEAR Protocol, Metart Africa, Opolo Global Innovation, Africhange, Financial Services Innovators (FSI), WhisperSMS, Incash, SIGMA, UNICAF, WomenInDefi, Softpay, Fast Credit, Emtech, MOMO PSB, Zoracom and Brandlife Digital. McKinsey & Company, as well as regulators like CBN, NIBSS, and NCC were also knowledge and ecosystem partners respectively.

Nigeria’s top media brands partnered with Nigeria Fintech Week to heighten its publicity and impact. The media partners are TechEconomy, Proshare, Techcabal, SDM, CitiMobileMedia, Folham Nig. Ltd, Nairametrics, and Financial Inclusion.

On the last day of NFW2022, Dr. Babatunde Obrimah, COO of FintechNGR, appreciated the FintechNGR Governing Council and event planning committee for their efforts and support in making the event a success. His closing remarks also highlighted some of the ecosystem-shaping projects initiated by FintechNGR, such as the DigiQuip project which equips people with digital skills that are valuable in the career marketplace.