Tuesday, January 08, 2019 06.30AM / Bukola Akinyele for Proshare WebTV
Capital Markets worldwide have key
roles to play in developing the fintech ecosystem say tech experts and
financial analysts.
Valued at approximately $40bn the Global
Fintech Industry, is noted to provide great opportunities for driving
innovation and technology in the financial services industry.
For a frontier economy like Nigeria, the
regulatory environment in the capital market serves as an enabler for the
growth of the Fintech Industry.
At the maiden edition of the Africa Fintech Festival
held in Lagos at the end of last year, Dr. Afolabi Olowookere Head, Economic
Research, at the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), argued that
some exchanges are already using blockchain technology.
He cited the fact that AFEX is a commodity
exchange that is already investing in blockchain technology and the Central
Securities Clearance Systems, CSCS, who are also doing a lot of work in
blockchain platforms to improve service delivery.
Dr. Olowookere emphasized the need for collaboration
between fintech firms and capital market operators to facilitate an efficient
and effective financial system. He believes that fintech companies equally have
critical roles to play in enhancing Financial Literacy.
The SEC head of research observed that the Fintech
roadmap committee established by the capital market regulator, will encourage
fintechs to participate in the capital market by improving the application of
technology to financial service delivery.
According to him “Financial inclusion is very
important, beyond banking, beyond savings, beyond payments, beyond insurance
and pension we need to consider the capital market; we need to pull together”.
Olowookere also stated that SEC was exposing
Fintech companies to the enabling laws in the market.
“Another thing we are doing is that we are setting up
a Fintech unit in our infrastructure department to see how to engage fintech
companies.’’, he notes.
Mr Gbite Oduneye CEO, Eagle Global Markets, on his
part said the more people understand financial services and how it benefits
their lives, the more people will participate in the market.
Oduneye noted that there has been a lot of interest in
mobile payments which is driving financial inclusion in the country.
He said, there were vast opportunities in the capital
market and the winner in this sector, would be people that can
communicate with the larger retail public.
Speaking further, Gbite noted that, the number of
people and clients that are actually operate in the capital market are
relatively small.
He said, the SEC has done a lot to assist innovators
by creating sandboxes, to create an enabling environment for innovative entrepreneurs.
The EGM CEO emphasized the need for partnership
between innovators and existing capital market players, to create products and
services to reach out to the general populace and to speak in a language that
they understand.
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