Progress recorded in the area of financial inclusion in recent years can be doubled if policy reform are intensified to engender increased competition, financial and technological innovations in Africa’s retail banking space.
According to the Group Country Director, Jeff and O’Brien, Pascal Odibo, stakeholders must consider financial inclusion initiatives aimed at reaching significant underserved, disadvantaged and low income segments of the continent.
Speaking at the second Africa Retail Banking conference in Lagos, Odibo stressed the need to improve banking infrastructure in Nigeria and other African countries to aid service offering at affordable costs.
Odibo noted that the objective of the company towards organising the conference was “to trigger the conversation and hopefully steer the sector into radical engagements.
It is also to get the proper dynamics that will shape who plays, dominates and indeed set the agenda for retail banking in the region between now and the next two decades.
The Managing Director of Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo, who was represented by the Executive Director, Ola Olabijo, said the retail space was undergoing a fundamental transition, as digital and mobile technology are reshaping how products and service offerings are purchased by customers.
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“Retail banking in Nigeria is evolving. Traditional way of banking is changing. It is going to even change more with the digital age that we are coming into. Customers are going to have a lot of alternatives on how to interface with the market,” he said.
According to him, the emerging alternatives, which form large portion of what today’s retail banking is all about need to focus on, including businesses managed by middlemen, farmers, entertainers and other medium-sized businesses that are the new money-spinners.
He added that the development has got banking industry to rethink their customer management strategies.
“Retail banking Strategy looks deeply into how customers can be reached in their respective communities. ‘Is it through alternative banking centre’? ‘Is it through agent-banking’? ‘Is it through cash-point or through other platforms?” he questioned.
“Customers are no longer interested in products or services, they want solutions that are designed to fit into their highly fluidly expectations called- “mobile expectations,” Olabijo said.
Head Financial Inclusion Services, MTN Nigeria, Usoro Usoro, said, “the current pace of change is driven by three forces, which are technology, shifting consumer behaviour and increasing competition.”
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