Interswitch Highlights Role in Fintech Ecosystem, Gap in Consumer Education

Emma Okonji

Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, Interswitch, has highlighted the role its various platforms such as Verve, Quickteller, Quickteller Paypoint, Interswitch Payment Gateway and Application Programming Interface (API) Marketplace, play across ecosystems, including, financial services, health, payment, lending, transportation, and e-commerce.

The payment company also identified some of the challenges faced by customers during financial transactions across different payment channels, but blamed some of the challenges on the wide gap that exists in consumer education, which it said, often lead to loss of money, which could have been avoided, if customers have better knowledge of financial savings and funds transfer.

Interswitch gave the insights at a media interactive session in Lagos recently, while providing clearer perspectives on its various payment platforms and future projections.

The Group Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Interswitch Ltd, Cherry Eromosele, in her opening remarks, described Interswitch as a pivotal and strategic enabler of the African Fintech ecosystem, recognising its crucial responsibility in sustaining businesses through its payments infrastructure leveraged by players across sectors of the economy. She also thanked the media for supporting the company in its goal.

According to her, “In support of our mission to inspire Africa to greatness, Interswitch Group has continued to push the boundaries of innovation to deliver payment solutions that enable commerce across Africa.  In keeping with this goal, we have naturally taken the role of an enabler in the Nigerian Fintech ecosystem, a duty we have accepted with a deep sense of responsibility, fully realising that several of our platforms form the framework on which many players in the ecosystem have built their offerings. While we remain focused on this goal, we cannot underestimate the key role that the media play as our partners, actively supporting and helping to frame our narratives in the minds of our customers and the public.” 

Identifying some of the infrastructural challenges in the payment industry, the Managing Director, Payment Processing and Switching (Interswitch Purepay), Mr. Akeem Lawal said: “Although infrastructure has been a challenge in the payment industry, the situation has improved over the years and Interswitch has the capacity to meet customers’ growing needs