Business a.m.
PalmPay, an African fintech trailblazer, is at the forefront of promoting collaboration and innovation among banks and fintechs to empower financial inclusion at the last mile.
Chibuzor Melah, PalmPay’s head of partnerships, recently made a call for such cooperation during the Nigeria Fintech Forum in Lagos, urging banks and fintechs to come together to revolutionise financial access for underserved areas of the region.
The Nigeria Fintech Forum, themed “Building the Next Frontiers for Nigeria’s Fintech,” provided a platform for the country’s fintech industry leaders, regulators, and key stakeholders to converge and deliberate on the sweeping advancements and potential future trajectories of Nigeria’s financial technology industry.
During a panel session titled “Rewriting the Rules: Building an Open, Innovative, and Collaborative Bank of the Future”, Melah took to the stage to outline the company’s core beliefs in fostering partnerships and igniting innovation to bring value to their customers.
“What has given us success in the past 5 years of operation is our investment in data which gives us insights into customer behavior. This enables us to create tailor-made solutions suitable for our customers. Our insight-driven strategy has helped us reach out to the unbanked thereby building trust in open banking.
“We have succeeded by collaborating with other players in the financial sector. We believe that there’s still a lot more to do in building trust, driving financial inclusion in the last mile,” he stated.
Drawing attention to the rapid evolution of the financial sector, Melah observed that a recent EFInA (A2F) Survey 2023 report revealed a significant jump in formal financial inclusion in Nigeria, from 56 percent in 2020 to 64 percent in 2023.
Expanding on his observations, Melah said “This success can be attributed to collaborative efforts between banks and fintechs but more collaboration can take place. Interestingly, the challenges we face today have opened opportunities to collaborate to gain new markets, and deliver new products to benefit the economy.”
