Amede who was represented by an executive member of CCISONFI, Mr. Olusola Odediran (also, the Chief Information Security Officer) Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), spoke during his keynote presentation at the maiden edition of Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON 1.0) held at Oriental Hotel, Lagos on Thursday.

His presentation themed, ‘Payments: Trust, Security and Privacy in AI Era,’ explored the critical aspects of trust, security, and privacy in payments, and provided insights into the challenges, solutions, and future trends in safeguarding transactions in the digital landscape.

The CCISONFI chairman stated that although the payment industry enjoys such regulatory oversights arising from the Nigerian Data Protection Act (NDPA) and Data protection laws, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and the compliance requirements for businesses, the industry has balanced security and convenience relying on user experience in payment security, seamless authentication methods, and biometric and tokenized payments.

On how emerging Technologies will impact the payment industry, he disclosed that while Blockchain will be deployed to ensure secure transactions, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will be used in fraud prevention even as privacy-preserving computing impact cannot be underestimated.

Amede called on players in the payment industry to continue to educate consumers by providing them with tips on how to secure online payments, how to recognise phishing attempts, and the importance of keeping software updated.

He listed some of the best practices for businesses including regular security audits and penetration testing; employee training on security protocols; and ensuring collaboration with payment security experts.

Speaking further on the need to build trust in payment systems, Amede, who is also the CISO of Zenith Bank Plc emphasised the importance of trust for consumer adoption, transparency in transactions, and commitment to securing the payment infrastructure.

He stated that the Payment Systems are exposed to such threats and vulnerabilities as Cyber Attacks and Data Breaches, Phishing and Social Engineering, and malware and ransomware.

Ikenna Ndugbu, the chief compliance officer, represented by Isoken Aigbomian, the regional sales Manager, Moniepoint, highlighted the evolution of Moniepoint into a leading payment processor, stating, “We started off with a virtual account service where we automated payments or transfers, allowing customers and businesses to make and receive payments seamlessly through transfers. This was what catapulted and was modified into the limelight and household name that seems to be.”

Aigbomian emphasized the company’s focus on providing flexible payment options to businesses across various sectors, stating,

“Today, Moniepoint offers a wide variety of payment options to businesses. There is an online payment platform, in-person payments option and then there are the cash payments via our ATM network, which is almost, I think, one of the largest, as well.”

She explained how Moniepoint MFB identified the need for a seamless payment experience and developed innovative solutions to address it. “So, what we did was we looked inward, and we said the most popular means of payment in Nigeria is transfer. So we worked with our engineers and were able to build an infrastructure.”

Roosevelt Elias, the founder of Payble, noted the importance of data privacy and security in the age of digital payments, stating, “It is essential to preserve the details of such trusted transactions, as they often hold significant importance for the company’s outcomes and operations.”

He endorsed for cautious use of data and highlighted the need for AI encryption and compliance-based companies to protect user privacy and ensure regulatory compliance.

On the other hand, Peter Evbota, sales director at inq. Digital Nigeria Limited, spoke on artificial intelligence (AI) and its ability to transform sectors, particularly in data analytics and security.

He emphasized the power of AI in processing both structured and unstructured data, highlighting its ability to detect patterns and provide valuable insights.

Earlier in his welcome address, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi, co-founder of TechCastle Foundation, organisers of the event, while giving insight into why the forum was berthed, said payments are very critical in the economy of every country including Nigeria.

“Last year, before the elections, we witnessed what Nigerians faced in the payments system- ATMs were not working to dispense cash, and at merchant locations, it was difficult to make payments with banks’ PoS thanks to Moniepoint and few others that came to the rescue,” he said.

Onwuegbuchi noted that there had been issues of declined transactions and customers’ accounts debited, in addition to an existing systemic fraud, misinformation and lack of information that have led to customers losing their money to fraudsters.

“After looking at these issues and many more, we at TechCastle Foundation decided to create a platform where stakeholders could discuss these issues with the objective of making our Payments systems better,” he said.

He stated that the essence of the forum was to make the ecosystem better for every Nigerian as operators, regulators and end users are expected to discuss to find a way to make the system better.

He added that trust issues in payments, security and other industry-related issues were to be discussed at the forum by cybersecurity experts who have distinguished themselves in working with money deposit banks to ensure that cybercriminals didn’t steal money in the bank.

The inaugural edition of the Payments Forum Nigeria was a cross-industry platform that focused on addressing issues that require broad cooperation and coordination across many constituents in the payments industry.

PAFON 1.0, sponsored by Moniepoint, Digital Encode Limited, Cybervergent, inq.Digital and Payble with support from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Fintech Association of Nigeria and Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), provided participants with an inside look at the Payments industry, offering perspectives from key stakeholders, including payment networks, technology innovators, leading merchants, issuers, acquirers, and payment processors.

Kwadwo Dako Botwe, a representative of the 3i Africa summit and member of the Fintech Office of The Bank of Ghana was present to highlight the upcoming 3i Africa summit.

The 3i Africa Summit is a 3-day global symposium aimed at envisioning the future of the African financial landscape and propelling the digital economy.

Under the theme “Unleashing Africa’s fintech and digital economic potential, the summit will convene over 2,000 investors, innovators and policy makers from around the world at the Accra International Conference Center on the 13th to 15th of May, 2024.

It is co-convened by the Bank of Ghana and Development Bank Ghana in collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and its subsidiary Elevandi, organizers of the Singapore Fintech Festival.

inq. Digital Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of inq. Group is an emerging leading digital and cloud solutions provider that delivers simpler seamless solutions to complex business challenges.

With offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, inq. provides reliable and affordable Intelligent Connectivity, SDN/NFV, Cloud and Digital services (including Edge –AI) for Nigerian businesses including those in the payment space.

Participation is FREE, however, pre-registration is required: https://bit.ly/4c4N19H.

Speaking ahead of Payments Forum Nigeria [PAFON 1,0] scheduled to take place at Oriental Hotel, Lekki Road, Lagos on Thursday, March 21, 2024 by 9am under the theme: “Payments: Trust, Security and Privacy in AI Era”, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi, the co-founder of TechCastle Foundation, the organisers, said the goal is to enable information exchange and knowledge sharing on key industry insights issues amongst key stakeholders, with the objective of ensuring a collaborative and proactive approach to push for policies that enable growth, tackling/mitigating fraud and limiting occurrences and losses.

Speakers

The following speakers are lined up for the Forum: Chibuzo Efobi, Director, Payments System Management, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Festus Amede, Chairman, Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Financial institutions (CCISONFI; Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare, Chief Visionary Officer (CVO), Digital Encode Limited; Adetokunbo Omotosho, Chief Executive Officer, Cybervergent; Roosevelt Elias, Founder, Payble; Ikenna Ndugbu, chief compliance officer, Moniepoint MFB, and Peter Evbota, Sales Director at inq. Digital Nigeria Limited.

Payments Forum Nigeria is organised by TechCastle Foundation and sponsored by: inq. Digital Nigeria Limited, Cybervergent, Moniepoint, Digital Encode Limited, Payble with support from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Speaking at the Africa Tech Alliance (AfriTECH 3.0) Forum held on Wednesday at The Providence Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Mr. Ifeanyi Akosionu, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of inq.Digital Nigeria said the digital service provider offers services from the Internet to broadband connectivity, enabling its customers to connect to their applications and last-mile customers.

“We offer co-location services for partners that are just starting out their digital transformation journey. With co-location services, you can bring your servers to our data centre. We also offer voice solutions which you can communicate with an official line to your customers. We give you the platform to be able to digitize, to be able to transform your business,” Akosionu said.

The Chief Executive Officer who spoke through Olumide Obafemi, stated that the vision of the technology startup is to imagine a better world using technology, and being able to do that by constantly learning, innovating, and leaving a lasting legacy for its teeming customers.

He disclosed that inq.Digital’s value proposition is to offer its clients and partners access to cutting-edge digital solutions and give them increased revenue opportunities by allowing them to focus more on innovation and creativity rather than focusing on their daily tasks.

He said that while ensuring that these are achieved, inq.Digital takes care of its client’s operational tasks, by making available the platform for transformation, adding that all these are done by offering competitive pricing and technical support.

“We also have in-country cloud hosting where you can spin up virtual machines, spin up databases for you, and a backup and disaster recovery service for you. In a city like Lagos, this gives you reduced latency and also allows you to comply with Nigeria’s Data Protection law that has just been signed.

“We also have partnerships with public cloud providers such as Microsoft, AWS, and Google that can provide public cloud hosting to you if you don’t want in-country cloud hosting. We are also leading the charge for the revolutionization of artificial intelligence in Africa by building systems that are enhanced and integrated with artificial intelligence.

“We are working on a solution for the FMCG industry, manufacturing industry, to be able to do object counts in their warehouse so you do not have to wait for the supervisor to go and count and have pay-off rate happened; the system can easily do that for you. You can also link it up with your CCTV so you don’t have to employ a CCTV operator, you get real-time incident events on the train,” he added.

Akosionu disclosed that inq.Digital Nigeria has a monitoring solution that can monitor an operator’s network, application and infrastructure in one dashboard and enable him to have a view, react, and be proactive in monitoring and service delivery especially when there is a DNS attack.

On cybersecurity, Akosionu said inq.Digital Nigeria believes that cybersecurity solutions help organisations reduce cyber risks and attacks, and therefore, is in partnership with some cybersecurity providers such as Sophos to enable them to deliver their cybersecurity solutions to their customers.

He stated that inq.Digital also provides Data management and data warehousing solutions that will be able to constantly meet client data across the entire business from Human Resources, finance, and procurement, to analytics, and machine learning, and access the reports on the dashboard.

Akosionu further disclosed that inq.Digital Nigeria has a contact centre solution that is integrated with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) where one can contact their customers. “It has intelligent voice recording so that when your customers call you, you can have an automated response to them and also transfer them to the necessary customer service agent.

“You also have it integrated with CRM, that way you can have your customer history and you can easily follow up with them regularly. All these services can be in the line of basically what we are talking about technology-as-a-service. A managed IT service solution can offer you that. At inq.Digital Nigeria, we offer you security, offer you application development, offer you infrastructure,” Akosionu said.