The
Chief Operating Officer of Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria (RMB), Mr. Funso
Odukoya, has called for increased awareness on issues around financial
inclusion in the country.
Odukoya,
spoke during a panel session at the 2018 Annual National Conference of
the Finance
Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), with the
theme: “Banks, Fintechs and Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Journey,” held
in Lagos, recently.
“To
achieve financial inclusion, we need to educate everyone. Let’s get the
information out there and let’s bring people into the financial system.
“We can
achieve this by understanding our culture and by leveraging information
to make sure everybody understands what financial inclusion is about,”
he said.
Responding
to a question on an allegation that banks don’t lend to fintechs
because of competition, Odukoya said: “Banks carry out due diligence
before they lend to any sector. You really must do the due diligence
before you can lend to anybody. Banking is just understanding the risk.”
But, he
pointed out that in most countries where fintechs had developed, “you
will discover that they are not really dependent on banks’ funding.”
“There
are venture capitalists and private equity companies that look into the
value the start-up is bringing and they provide funds to those
companies.
“So,
fintechs that are struggling for funds, I would say is because they have
no value to offer. If a fintech start-up has value, funding will seek
such a firm out.
“We have instances of young start-ups that are flooded with funding because they are bringing value to the table.”
Continuing,
he said: “But the relationship between the banks and the fintechs have
to be collaborative. It mustn’t be we against them, it has to be all of
us working together to achieve the ultimate goal of reaching out to
everyone.
“So, the
goal is not for fintechs to overtake banks, or banks to overtake
fintechs. The goal is to reach out to everyone and make financial
services affordable and available to everyone.”
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