Expert Highlights How Govt Can Help Nigerian Fintech Become Global Champions

Expert Highlights How Govt Can Help Nigerian Fintech Become Global Champions

Managing Director of Precise Financial Systems (PFS), Mr. Yele Okeremi, has highlighted the need for the Nigerian government to pay attention to the trends and developments in the country’s fintech ecosystem and offer strategic support to boost the sector’s growth.

Okeremi, who featured on C-Suite Café, a podcast initiated by veteran journalist and brand strategist, Ikem Okuhu, stressed that only the government can provide the needed leverage for the sector to become leaders globally.

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He cited the example of how the government of China took deliberate steps to promote its domestic payment platform to rank among the world’s leading payment gateways.

“If we are going to achieve the kind of goals that I have in mind, then, naturally, the government must take certain positions,” Okeremi stated.

“Take a look at Union Pay today. Union Pay started as China Union Pay. But today, Union Pay cards are accepted everywhere in the world. It was not magic. It happened as a result of the deliberate strategy of the Chinese government. The card business was dominated by Mastercard and Visa. American Express was popular in the United States. But today, Union Pay has become global. So, why couldn’t Verve have become global?”

The fintech expert said the people behind Verve had a sellable technology, but could not withstand the headwinds of global competition. He decried the situation where Nigeria uses cards issued by foreign companies for local payments.

“Who does the kinds of things we do here? For local payments, we are issuing Mastercard and Visa when we have Verve? I think these are issues that we need to take a look at,” he stated.

According to him, Nigeria has all it takes to project its fintech products to the global stage.

He urged the government to pay greater attention to ensure this becomes a reality.

READ ALSO: Five Ways Fintech Users Can Protect Themselves From Growing Online Fraud

“We have a huge market here, and we have the resources. The assets for creating wealth are the market and the natural resources. Nigeria has both. But the private sector can do so much, but until the government provides the needed support and policy leverage, the private sector will only achieve limited successes, and until you have the support of your sovereign, you will never be able to fly,” Okeremi canvassed.

He lamented the situation whereby people who have never been involved in wealth creation populate the country’s political leadership space, and advocated a reversal to a system in which certain critical political leadership positions are reserved for certain people deemed to have a proven track record of success in those fields.

He disagreed with the notion that some of the fintech companies labelled unicorns are Nigerian companies, saying that most of them had pivoted to foreign ownership because of their desire to scale and attract funding.

For instance, I am one of the founding fathers of Interswitch, and ordinarily, had the environment done what was needed to have been done, Interswitch would have blossomed. But they recognized that the environment was not giving them what they wanted, so they took the easy way to get value – have alliances and sell to foreign interests. But that’s not what I have fought for, and I am not going to blame anybody who has done that. I doubt if I should, because I might be able to withstand the pressures that they cannot withstand.

“But the question is, ‘should we continue on this trajectory as a people? It is a picture of people who are going nowhere, and that trajectory must reverse. We must realise that we have the capacity to do anything that anybody anywhere in the world can do, and even if we do not have the capacity at this particular point in time, we have more than enough capacity to learn and understudy, and replicate,” he stated.

READ ALSO: I’ll Remove Obstacles Affecting Fintech Firms, Other Businesses – Tinubu

The fintech expert also charged the government to pick outstanding Nigerian fintech players and push them into the global space through deliberate creation of narratives that will engender global acceptance.

He stated that Nigeria ought to aim for the establishment of a leadership that recognizes that the ability to create something out of nothing is what truly defines wealth, not cash.

 

victor ezeja
Correspondent at  |  + posts

Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.


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