Breaking News

Fintechs can transform capital market, says NGX

Oluwasina Phillip

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, Mr Temi Popoola, has said financial technology companies have a huge potential to transform the capital markets and effectively build a digital economy.

He said this at the 2021 National Workshop of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers where he was represented by the Divisional Head, Trading Business at NGX, Jude Chiemeka.

He said rather than seeing fintechs as competitors, they should be seen as potential partners to incumbent capital market infrastructure providers like NGX.

Citing the Pulse of Fintech H2 2020 report, Popoola said the global investments by fintechs was $105bn, despite a significant drop from the $165bn recorded in 2019, adding that Nigerian fintechs raised about $439m in 2020.

According to him, fintechs are transforming the financial services industry by focusing on targeted products and services, automating and commoditising high margin processes, strategic use of data and collaborating with incumbents.

According to him, the NGX provides access to capital, trade execution, post-trade services, data analytics and information services, operations and technology.

He said the NGX was not left out of the fintech adoption as it continued to adopt technology to improve market accessibility and transparency.

Popoola said, “As Africa’s largest economy and with a population of 200 million — 40 per cent of which is financially excluded, Nigeria is classified as a developing fintech economy compared to its more mature global peers such as the UK, Singapore, Australia, Sweden and India.

“EY estimates that Nigerian fintech revenues will reach $543m by 2022, driven by increasing smartphone penetration, unbanked populations and a focused regulatory drive to increase financial inclusion and cashless payments.

“In line with the evolution of fintech in other markets, fintech activity in Nigeria started in payments and moved into other areas. Consumer lending — and, increasingly, asset management — are focal points for fintech activity.”

About Editor

Check Also

Upscale the Quality of Your Products to Meet global standards, WTO DG charges Shea Producers

The World Trade Organisation, on Tuesday, charged Nigeria and other African countries to improve the …

Leave a Reply