CBN, Inlaks Harp on Customer Experience to Unlock Digital Banking Opportunities Godwin Emefiele

Godwin Emefiele

Emma Okonji

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Inlaks, a financial technology company, have stressed the...

need for banks to invest more in people in order to grow customer experience and unlock digital opportunities.

While the CBN was of the view that banks should begin to invest more in customers than the technology that drives banking processes, Inlaks emphasised the need for collaboration between banks, finTechs and CBN, to boost customer experience in a digitised economy. 

Both spoke at the maiden edition of Inlaks Digital Summit in Lagos at the weekend.

The Deputy Governor, CBN, Mr. Ade Shonubi, who spoke on, ‘Bank Branches and the Future: The Regulator’s Perspective,” said the regulator would always want to look at things slightly different from the way those it regulates think, adding that the focus of the regulator is about the impact of banking services on their customers and the people and not really about the technology that drives the entire process. 

According to him, “When talking about bank branches, we look at agent points and agent services in financial inclusion drive. 

“Services to customers should extend beyond the technology that is driving the service. In all successful banking services, there had always been the need for trust, and that is what the core banking services are built upon. 

“Trust could be defined as the probability that expectations of the service rendered, will be met and satisfactory to the customer. 

“What attracts customers to the bank is about trust and the reward system. Bank branches must therefore build on trust to attract customers to the branches.” 

Shonubi, further explained that banks should focus more on how to impact customers and build their trust. 

“The focus should therefore be on the people and not about the technology. In Nigeria, we have less than 40 million people who are banked in a population of 200 million. 

“It goes to show that majority of the people do not carry digital devices and they are not digital. It is for this reason that banks should focus more on the customers and provide them with services that will meet their needs,” Shonubi said. 

The CEO, African Operations at Inlaks, Mr. Femi Adeoti, in his welcome address, stressed the need for greater collaboration between all stakeholders. He urged banks not to see fintechs as threats but as collaborators to adaptation to digital change. This, he said would enable them deliver better customer experience.