According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), electronic transactions in Nigeria soared by 66% year-on-year, reaching N330 trillion in December 2021 from N198.61 trillion in 2020.
Speaking at the “The Future of Payments and Fraud: Catching the Next New” conference organized by BusinessDay in Lagos on May 12, Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability at CBN, Aishah Ahmad, highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital shift towards digital payment platforms.
Representing Ahmad, Deputy Director, Banking and Payments System Department at CBN, Taiwo Oladimeji, emphasized the importance of innovation in driving progress, as well as the efforts to improve financial inclusion by enabling competition in the fintech sector.
“Innovation is acknowledged as an important lever to drive meaningful progress in this direction. While financial inclusion continues to improve in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria has set an ambitious target and that is to achieve means for enabling competition within the fintech sector, which facilitates digital financial services.
The discussion also highlighted the need to identify and license new innovative players, create a framework to understand markets for new players, and resolve challenges related to identity management, neutral financial access points, operational payment systems, electronic payments, and open banking, for achieving financial inclusion and access to quality, affordable financial services for all Nigerians.