CBN Gov, NDIC Boss, Bank Chiefs, FinTechs, For 2018 FICAN Confab

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, is to deliver the keynote speech at the 2018 annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) is slated for Lagos on September 15 and 16.
The high profile conference, with the theme: “Banks, Fintech and Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Journey,” according to the association, will have representatives of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in attendance, while Dr. Yinka David-West, Digital Financial Inclusion Specialist at the Lagos Business School, will be guest speaker.
The event will also feature a panellist discussion involving some chief executives of bank, Financial Technology (FinTech) operators, as well as regulators.
They will discuss the sub-theme: “Financial Inclusion: the Journey So Far.”
The conference, according to FICAN, has become imperative at this time when FinTech companies and financial innovation are changing the competitive landscape of financial inter-mediation in line with global trends.
“Every commercial bank today knows what services to upgrade; because customers are already carrying out such transactions with FinTech startups.
In the same manner, financial inclusion has continued to assume increasing recognition across the globe among policy makers, researchers and development oriented agencies,” the FICAN noted.
Continuing, it said the conference will be a step towards finding the nexus, and its implications for meeting the 2020 financial inclusion target, besides helping to define roles that traditional banking and FinTechs occupy in this journey.
The CBN, in collaboration with stakeholders had, some years ago, launched the National Financial Inclusion Strategy aimed at further reducing the exclusion rate to 20% by 2020.
Among other things, the conference will bring together experts from global multilateral financial institutions, public and private sector players, to highlight and examine the various options available for bringing the unbanked into the financial system using technology.
Continuing, the association assured that the conference is also designed to enhance awareness and deepen knowledge among the creme of Nigeria’s financial journalists on the role of financial technology in rendering banking services cheaper, faster and more conveniently.
The conference will be attended by journalists covering money market, capital market and the Insurance industry, from the print and electronic media.