At NSE/Bloomberg CEO roundtable, panelist canvasses serious planning, infrastructure investment  for Nigeria to benefit from 4th Industrial Revolution

Fikayo Akeredolu, country manager Bloomberg made this point while speaking at the fourth edition of the NSE/Bloomberg CEO roundtable, adding that it will be a tragedy to once again miss the benefits associated with the fourth industrial revolution.

The fourth industrial revolution primarily builds on the third which comprises the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century with the use of electronics and information technology to automate production.

The fourth industrial revolution is thus characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.

Highlighting how the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) is positioning to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the fourth industrial revolution, Oscar Onyema, its chief executive said the Exchange is investigating the market potential of key emerging technologies in order to deploy solutions which will empower a larger proportion of the populace to access the capital market, as well as unlock efficiencies in product and service delivery for capital market operators.

He added that the NSE had begun leveraging on technology by launching X-Gen, a trading platform and catalyst for boosting trading in Africa.

“On the back of this, we introduced TradeSmart, a mobile trading technology that enables investors to conveniently buy, sell and monitor their investments.

“We have embraced cloud-based technologies by building our own Data Centre to provide a number of services ranging from cloud computing, storage and database offering, networking, and management tools, to mention a few,” Onyema said

Speaking to the theme of the event,“Reshaping the Nigerian Economy for Sustainable Growth: Leveraging the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a Catalyst for Advancement”, was a group of business leaders in a panel session moderated by Paul Wallace, Africa emerging markets reporter for Bloomberg news.

Shola Akinlade co-founder/CEO of PayStack who spoke on where Nigeria stands today in terms of the fourth industrial revolution was of the opinion that Nigeria has begun taking advantage of the opportunities that abounds with technology.

Akinlade whose company processes nearly 15 percent of all Nigerian online payments, and services over 17,000 businesses by collecting and transferring online and offline payments securely, explained that there is a new generation of people and companies in Nigeria that are building amazing things and solving problems.

“Gone are those days when we wait for people to come solve our problems,” Akinlade said. Explaining that, with his and his partner’s  local education, they were able to build a software that could enhance payment solutions and record successes drawing the attention of some of the biggest companies in the world, such as Visa barely two years into their existence.

“These companies realise that we have begun making so much progress. They understand that Africa’s potential for financial services is huge and that problems will now be solved internally, so if there is anybody trying to figure out solutions, they understand that they ought to support them.” Akinlade said.

Jubril Enakele the CEO of Zenith Capital Limited, reiterated the need to catch up with the rest of the world, especially when it comes to financing.

According to him, the first, second and third industrial revolution which had to deal with energy and electricity, generation of computers and IT to drive productivity is quite different from the fourth industrial revolution which he feels is about communication and interconnectivity of these technologies earlier developed.

“It is possible for Nigeria to benefit  from the fourth industrial revolution but we need to catch up, because it started years ago and for Nigeria it’s late,“ he said.

Enakele pointed out that in the wake of massive transactions taking place with Bitcoin and crypto currencies in developing and developed countries around the world, the finance and capital market operators will need to imbibe or consider imbibing the technology space to further grow finance products.

He however noted that the country must start by providing a policy framework for the era to thrive.

Speaking from the angle of investors, Titi Odunfa Adeoye, the founder and managing director of Sankore Investments said that Nigeria needed more technology stars such as Paystack for investors to actively engage with.

“The space is relatively narrow. We think that it is important for there to be a broader range of innovation, because what is going on in Nigeria is just at the beginning.

“PayStack is doing great to encourage other people to solve specific problems, but we need finance people to start embracing technology and not wait to understand it first. They must begin to think of their businesses as technology business,” Adeoye said.

On how the government can drive this revolution, Patience Oniha, director general, Debt Manage Office (DMO), highlighted the passion of the government in driving retail participation at the capital market.

“We are looking at automating the process for subscribing, whereby investors can buy bonds from their phones and generally make things easier for people to invest,“ she said.

In solving the challenges of financial exclusion in Nigeria, Victor Etuokwu, Access Bank executive director, representing Herbert Wigwe, the bank’s CEO, said the barriers to financial access has to be brought down by leveraging  opportunities the revolution brings.

He lamented that financial exclusion is one of the biggest problem in Nigeria today because partnerships that can facilitate the ease of access and entry to financial services are not in place.

“These are the things we need to work on and we need to do it by using the data on our hands to add value to the financial services space,” said Etuokwu.