Experts in the financial inclusion ecosystem have highlighted the importance of financial and regulatory stability among financial regulators, FinTech developers and the grassroots beneficiaries, in order to achieve seamless operations that will further deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria, through capacity building
They spoke recently in Lagos, while announcing the partnership between EMTECH and Global InfoSwift Consulting (GIC), designed to provide capacity building on Nigeria’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Regulatory Sandbox and Open Banking for Nigerian financial regulators and financial services providers.
The capacity building programme is expected to drive innovation and collaboration in the Nigerian financial services regulatory environment.
EMTECH, a FinTech for Central Banks and GIC, announced that the partnership would deliver capacity building in three core and interrelated areas: Central Bank Digital Currency, Regulatory Sandbox Framework, and Application Programming Interface (API) and Open Banking.
The partnership will enable regulators, banks and FinTechs to accelerate the transformative changes seen in the evolving financial services regulatory environment.
The partnership programme, which is set for launch in the next 90 days with engagements of key stakeholders across the ecosystem, further stressed the need for collaboration and regulatory frameworks to enable successful outcomes that would impact over a billion people across the continent, in line with African central banks’ move towards innovation and digitization.
Founder and CEO, EMTECH, Carmelle Cadet, while giving an overview of the ‘Capacity Building Programme’, said: “EMTECH is pioneering a new approach as a FinTech for Central Banks, and also other financial services regulators and financial services providers. We are positioned to serve as a bridge between the regulator and regulated within the financial services industry by providing modern technology platforms and tools to enable an inclusive and resilient financial market.”
According to her, the capacity building program would facilitate the convergence of knowledge on innovative solutions, enabling supervisory agencies’ regulatory frameworks to foster innovation, financial inclusion, financial system resilience as well as compliance of financial service providers’ (FSPs) emerging product and business models with relevant regulatory and consumer protection requirements.
Executive Director, Africa, EMTECH, Mr. Tunji Odumuboni, said the programme would offer global perspectives tailored for the nuance of the Nigerian financial ecosystem as a whole and individual players on the selected knowledge domains.
“We are delighted to join forces with GIC, because of their expertise and experience in facilitating technology– related capacity building programs for different players within the financial services regulatory environment,” Odumuboni said.
Founder and CEO, Global InfoSwift Consulting Ltd, Mr. Afolabi Oke, said: “We are excited to team up with EMTECH, who have hands-on experience with their API-led Modern Regulatory Sandbox Platform, in enabling Central Banks and other financial services regulators in getting actionable regulatory insights into the broad ecosystem of private-sector innovators while accelerating the readiness of FinTechs for regulatory reviews and go-to-market approvals.”
Independent Non-Executive Director at Global Infoswift, Mrs. Adeola Azeez said: “New technologies help us level up our lives. Rapid advances in financial innovations provide new opportunities for financial services and allow new products, services and players to enter markets. FinTech is able to strengthen financial development, inclusion, and efficiency both domestically and globally. With this, it forces the modern financial community to face new challenges in regulation, in particular associated with data privacy, consumer protection and operational risks
– Thisday
