NSE: Partnership Critical for Digitisation Nigeria’s Economy

Judith Obaze
The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema has called for collaborative efforts across market players to fully domesticate relevant emerging technologies that will benefits Nigeria and make the country a competitive investment destination, despite challenges that come with digitisation.

Onyema made the call at the Market Data Workshop 2018 Conference, with a Theme: “Digitisation, Disruption and Financial Inclusion,” in Lagos.
According to him, over the past few years the finance industry in Nigeria has experienced a tremendous transformation caused by disruptive technologies making Nigerian customers accustom to digital experience offered by companies such Google, Amazon, and Facebook with the use of smart phone.

Onyema, said research has shown that Smartphone penetration in Nigeria-the percentage of adult owning a smart phone is estimated at 28 per cent, with 76 per cent of internet traffic routed through mobile phone, while bank are adopting new technologies with customer-centric focus to make financial services more inclusive and to provide more superior customer experience in access and use of capital which is necessitated in response to the exponential growth in the use of smart phones by an exploding young population,

He also said despite the slow adoption in Nigeria, mobile money user according to electronic fact sheet provided by Nigerian Interbank Settlement (NIS), reportedly grew from 2.3 million in 2017 to about 8.0 million as of June 2018, which indicate about 314 per cent growth in adoption in space of six months, adding that in the capital market ecosystem, digitisation is quite gaining momentum.

Onyema said acknowledged that many financial companies are investing in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud technology and distributed ledger technology, that are capable of potentially disrupting the capital market infrastructure because of the many benefits it affords to the users who are not professionals investors for transactions without the use of traditional intermediaries.

He added: “The NSE is strategically position for deep engagement market stakeholders and economic actors towards the implementation of game changing technologies that have the potentials of to catalyse growth in Nigerian capital market. Since the lunch of the NSE multi-access trading platform exchange in 2013, our market data product and services have transformed the reach of an access through to Nigerian capital market, indeed our economy.”

Speaking from the perspective of a regulator, the Acting Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission( SEC),Ms. Mary Uduk, said that government agencies like the commission and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), SEC and other sister regulatory bodies have made important contributions to the progress of financial inclusion through valuable guidance and active involvement in national financial strategy aimed at reducing adult exclusion from financial service to 20 per cent by 2020.
According to her, this was possible through collaborative synergy and strong national commitment as financial inclusion is advancing in Nigeria.