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Tag: Niyi Toluwalope

  • ‘Let’s raise investment in digital payment technologies’

    ‘Let’s raise investment in digital payment technologies’

    Niyi Toluwalope, chief executive officer of eTranzact Plc, a payment services provider, has emphasised importance of investing in infrastructure and technologies to simplify access to digital payments.

    Speaking at a forum, Toluwalope noted that such investments would bring more people into the digital payment space, and spur business growth. 

    He said financial inclusion creates opportunities. Nigeria, with its huge population, has much to offer through financial inclusion. With over 200 million Nigerians and 140 million mobile phone users, there is potential for financial inclusion.

    Of 140 million, about 60 to 65 million are banked, leaving another 65 to 70 million in informal sector. Bringing these individuals into financial services can create a billion-dollar business.  “One of the great things is financial inclusion—how to get citizens in to enable them make payments, save, access insurance, credit, and othes that can drive entrepreneurship, support SMEs, and boost economy,” Toluwalope noted. 

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    He noted the transformations in digital payments, saying eTranzact facilitates seamless electronic transactions, and one of the key drivers is investment in technology that allows these operations seamless. Building trust and confidence in the ecosystem is crucial for encouraging those excluded to become included and participate in financial transactions. 

    Investing in technology that simplifies access and infrastructure for digital payments will lead to business growth.  Toluwalope believes while these technological features may involve less cash, some cash will be involved.

    “Even in advanced countries, cash is still used to some degree depending on the demographic. This is critical for Nigeria because reports show money in the informal sector is as significant as that in the formal sector but not captured in formal trading.” 

    Commenting on eTranzact’s performance, Toluwalope said: “For us, the numbers are impressive. We started our transformation in 2019, revamping our strategy to focus on switching infrastructure, merchant marketplace, merchant activity, and then direct-to-consumer services, which include our financial inclusion business and our digital bank. 

  • FinTech can drive inclusive growth in Nigeria, says Niyi Toluwalope

    FinTech can drive inclusive growth in Nigeria, says Niyi Toluwalope

    The Chief Executive Officer of eTranzact, a leading financial technology company, Niyi Toluwalope, has emphasised the need for Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem to prioritise inclusive growth.

    Speaking at the Nigerian FinTech conference, themed ‘positioning Africas fintech ecosystem to accelerate inclusive growth, he noted that while FinTech has seen significant investment and growth, it must expand beyond traditional areas like e-payments and e-commerce.

    “A lot of time, everyone is always talking about growth, growth, and growth. But in FinTech, I think we see a lot more expansion and moving into different areas. The area we need to focus more on is actual growth. Growth from the perspective of deepening into what we are already doing to actually accommodate a lot more players, more people, and more verticals into what we are doing today.”

    Nigeria’s fintech sector has received over $4 billion in inward investments in the last couple of years. But those monies are focused on e-payments, e-commerce, payment enabling, and all of that.

    A report in 2012 emphasised the fact that 90 percent of transactions in Africa are still predominantly cash. 

    He said: “If we look at the landscape of Nigeria, there is a lot of fintech activity, but predominantly in Abuja, and recently some of which we have actually taken to Kano and Kaduna. 

    “This tells us there’s still a ot of regions in Africa, in Nigeria, that need to be covered.”

    The CEO stressed that FinTech must focus on deepening its reach, accommodating more payers, and exploring new verticals to truly drive inclusive growth.

    “We need to continue to broaden our focus. It’s easy to focus on heavily active hubs in Lagos, the FinTech powerhouse, but we need to ask ourselves, are we spreading the benefits across Nigeria? You might say the returns on investments are there. But it’s not always about return on investments today because we have to think about return on investments tomorrow.

    “We need to do what we need to do today, so that in 20 years from now, some of you can be here taking about what you have created over the 20 years, or what you have enabled over the last 20 years to get Nigeria to where it is now and where it ought to be.

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    “Sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and real estate offer exciting opportunities for FinTech innovation. However, these areas have been largely overlooked in favour of more established markets. These sectors are also established to be very critical to our economy, yet still not as focused on as they ought to be. The perception is usually they are not investable, but if we aim for true, inclusive growth, FinTech needs to provide solutions that solve the problems in those sectors”, he added. 

    He charged everyone to be open and continue to collaborate and be flexible in how we build our FinTech products.

    Toluwalope highlighted the significant gap between Nigeria’s banking and unbanked populations, citing 140 millions telephone subscribers and only 65 million active bank account holders. 

    “This is the opportunity in the marketplace. This is what gets us excited every day, and eTranzact has positioned itself as a “super fintech,” ready to collaborate and take on innovative ideas to ensure financial inclusion for all Nigerians”, he said.