Lagos Hosts Future Banking Tech West Africa Summit 23-24 April

Lagos, Nigeria’s financial capital, will play host to this year’s Future Banking Technology Summit from Tuesday, April 23 to 24, 2019.

The Summit essentially includes two days of panel discussions and case studies showcasing the full value chain of the region’s banking and financial sector to best achieve financial inclusion and sustainable banking sector growth.

Banks, telcos, ministries of finance, central banks and leaders in the banking industry from 10 nations across the West African region are expected to attend to discuss efforts aimed at increasing financial inclusion in the sub-region by 2020.

The major focus of the Summit would be case studies from nations that had similar stories, that have increased access to finance through changes in regulations such as mobile money licences for non-banks and pushing agency banking.

To showcase this, the two-day summit will begin with discussions from some of the region’s regulators, including Dr Mudashiru Olaitan, Director, Development Finance Department, Central Bank of Nigeria as he describes the innovative platforms being adopted, adapted, and implemented to increase financial inclusion.

The second session is a panel discussion with EFInA, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance, Ghana as they further examine the best strategies to enhance rural access to finance.

Commenting on the Summit, Khalila Baldwin, the Director of the Summit said: “At such an exciting time for the financial space in West Africa, we knew it was imperative to launch an event capturing as many of the dynamic components of this sector as possible.

“A key focus of our event and many new policies being driven within the region is to ensure financial inclusion is increased across West Africa. We, therefore, wanted to shine a light on the leading strategies increasing access to finance with the top financial stakeholders in attendance.”

Baldwin added: “Late last year the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the introduction of Payment Service Banks, and amidst so much buzz around Telco’s entering the financial space in Nigeria we also wanted to provide a platform for both the traditional and non-traditional financial entities to converge.”

The first of its kind, the event will also focus on the future of digitising banking services for central banks in West Africa. This is as leveraging off experiences of similar regions can aid in the adoption of best financial inclusion practices, as it is becoming incumbent on banking stakeholders to be rapid, yet savvy in incorporating disruptive mobile money platforms, automated banking systems, tailored credit facilities and crypto-currencies for this dynamic market.

The two-day summit would equally tackle several paramount topics including, innovation in regulation – Overcoming gaps in rural banking strategies, supporting innovative financial institutions to improve financial inclusion, improving credit facilities to underbanked and small and medium enterprises, throughout main panel discussions and networking breaks.





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