Managing Director of TeamApt Limited, Dennis Ajalie, said fintech companies and banks play complementary roles in deepening payment products and services for users while acknowledging that at certain times those roles might have been misunderstood.
A subsidiary of Moniepoint Inc., TeamApt Ltd, facilitates payment processing across industries while enabling reliable payments for banks and their customers while reducing operating costs.
Ajalie added that the industry’s regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has delineated what each entity should do and how they should function in creating a successful payment ecosystem that protects consumers and enables businesses, which he admitted being complementary and not competitive.
He made the point while participating as a panelist at the annual conference of the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH) conference in Lagos.
Other panelists at the session include Partner, Digital Engineering, Deloitte, Oluwole Oyeniran; Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo; Chief Executive Officer, Emtech, Carmelle Cadet and Chief Operating Officer, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Dr Mohammed Jiya.
The panel discussion focused on ‘Digital Payments and the National Digital Economy Framework (NDEF)’.
Formed in July 2008, CeBIH seeks to achieve the primary objective of driving the adoption of electronic banking services in line with global practices by serving as a forum for heads of e-business/e-payments in Nigerian deposit-money banks to share ideas and experiences as well as advocate for the use of the right technologies, policies, standards, innovation, and public awareness in creating a financial services landscape that works for all.
A statement said that this year’s event, which had Moniepoint Inc. as a premium sponsor, demonstrated the financial giant’s commitment to creating a safe, transparent, and secure digital payments ecosystem.
The moderator and Founder of aCubed Limited, Wunmi Ogunbiyi, opened the panel discussion by highlighting the session’s focus on providing clarity on the real issues that matter to everyday Nigerians when it comes to digital payments, such as high fees that burden users unnecessarily, lack of accountability in digital transactions and bridging the gap in digital literacy to empower all Nigerians.
Touching on the imperative of borderless transactions and the solutions for implementation concerning the framework, Ajalie said: “Borderless transactions have to happen because we’re becoming more interconnected by the day and by the minute. We still have a lot of siloed implementations among key stakeholders and unless we recalibrate our systems, borderless remains beyond our reach and a mirage. There’s the fierce urgency of now that demands that we find solid ways to interconnect and once we can interconnect within ourselves, and reconcile properly, especially on the local front, then we can present a single, unified front that will enable us to push transactions and receive transactions from outside. We cannot go forward without fixing these internal challenges.”
