The Managing Director of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr Premier Oiwoh, has reiterated the role of technology in the provision of financial and payment innovation.
“We are aware that digital financial inclusion enables access to financial services and advances the economic progress in underserved market segments.
“In ensuring that the financially excluded are efficiently and effectively catered for within the ecosystem, we have created a platform-based payment system to enable the players in the ecosystem to innovate and thrive,” Mr Oiwoh said ahead of the International Financial Inclusion Conference (IFIC2022) scheduled for November 24 and 25, 2022, in Abuja.
The conference is the country’s first since the announcement of its National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) in 2012.
NIBSS has made significant efforts, with other financial service providers, to provide inexpensive Digital Financial Services (DFS) to the unbanked and financially excluded members of the Nigerian populace.
He stated that the industry has used innovative technology to build and offer financial products and services to drive financial inclusion over the years.
Participants in the programme Financial Inclusion for All: Scaling Innovative Digital Models will evaluate opportunities and develop real solutions and interventions that will ensure the nation’s financial inclusion objectives are met.
Under the National Financial Inclusion Initiative, timely delivery of financial services through agency banking has also revolutionised the economy, as it has boosted job creation through financial entrepreneurship, skills acquisition, digitalisation of society, and increased GDP, as each state’s economic activity is multiplied.
The launch of the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform, among other innovative payment options built for financial inclusion, altered the way Nigerians choose to pay for goods and services at all levels.
Using this as a foundation, NIP has expanded chances for Financial Service Providers and other ecosystem stakeholders to innovate and provide more options to drive financial inclusion.
In addition, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) established the Bank Verification Number (BVN) to unify the financial services sector, improve banking operations, and increase financial inclusion.
NIBSS has facilitated the growth and proliferation of BVN over the years through strong collaboration across the ecosystem, including the launch of remote offline BVN Enrolment by Agents for a larger reach. This is in addition to the recently launched ‘iGree’ BVN Consent Management Platform, which aims to increase financial inclusion and protect consumers.
In addition to successfully deploying Biometric Scanners at no cost to financial service providers, including DMBs, super agents, and MMOs, for the purpose of remote BVN enrolment, NIBSS has implemented a 100% increase in monetary incentives paid to BVN enrolling agents to incentivise them for each new BVN successfully enrolled in a bid to drive sustainable financial inclusion.
