FirstBank Reiterates Commitment to Partnering for Fintech Growth
Nume Ekeghe and Oluchi Chibuzor
The Chief Technology Officer of FirstBank of Nigeria, Rachel Adesina, has reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to collaborate with partners in the country to deepen the fintech space.
She stated this at the Nigeria Digital Payment Ecosystem conference held yesterday in Lagos sponsored by the FirstBank.
She reiterated that FirstBank see Fintechs companies as partners and would continue to provide opportunities for collaboration in deepening the space as an ecosystem player.
She said: “So, why is FirstBank sponsoring this? So, why are we sponsoring this organisation? For us, we are ecosystem player. We are looking for partners out there who are doing things that we can associate with. So, this is about the FinTech Festival. This is about creating awareness about what is going on in the Fintech space.
“And so, for us, this is not the only programme that we support. I think earlier in the week, there was another programme that has to do with AI. So, everywhere there are things that have to do with technology, we are involved. We are interested in what is happening in the industry. And we put our support where we believe that we will get maximum returns.”
Speaking also at the bank, on what the bank is doing to improve and deepen financial inclusion, Head, Financial Inclusion Services, FBN, Dr. Obianuju Ndu-Okereke, who drives the bank’s inclusion, said they do not see fintechs space as competitors but partners.
According to her, “We do not see the fintechs as our competitors. We also look at them as our partners in groups, especially with innovation and innovating product services that we use to penetrate and ensure that the digital payments in Nigeria grows.
“We have a single product that we are driving, and that is agent banking under first money. So first money, the structure is more or less like the fintech, but above and beyond that, we are also partnering with startups.We are partnering, we are collaborating with other fintechs to ensure that we develop and innovate products and services that we would use to penetrate and drive financial inclusion.”
