PalmPay pushes trust as keystone to financial inclusion in Africa’s last mile

Joy Agwunobi 

PalmPay, a leading fintech company, has called for trust among stakeholders in the FinTech industry across Africa,noting that trust is  essential to achieving last-mile access to digital financial services in underserved communities across the continent.

This was disclosed at a recent conference in Lagos, themed  “Harnessing Partnerships for Africa’s Prosperity – Bridging the  Trust Gap”, which brought together  top professionals  from Africa and beyond with an interest in regulation, digital financial services, compliance, technology, fraud, risk, monitoring, reporting, financial crime, cybersecurity, data management, financial inclusion and identity management.

Chika Nwosu, Managing Director of PalmPay Nigeria, said that although the digital payment space in Nigeria may seem to be doing well, more needs to be done to build trust, particularly among underserved individuals, in order to achieve better results. Adding  that transparency is crucial for digital payment platforms in the African FinTech space to succeed. 

According to him, lack of transparency is a significant challenge, as financial service providers often fail to clearly disclose their fees, resulting in hidden charges. This leads to customers losing trust in the service and potentially avoiding the financial service provider in the future, he explained.

“When customers find unexpected charges after believing a transaction was free, they lose trust in the service and may avoid the financial service provider in the future,”  Nwosu explained.

He further stated that another issue is the inadequate customer care services provided by financial service providers. Noting that it takes weeks or even months for customer complaints to be resolved, and some customer care agents lack the necessary training to  handle these complaints effectively.

Nwosu  pointed out that such experiences can deter customers from using these services. He offered several recommendations to build customer trust,  which include the need to  enhance customer care skills, offering 24-hour services, to build trust with customers and promoting financial literacy. 

He also highlighted the need for financial service providers to address data privacy concerns, urging the financial service providers to take measures in  ensuring  the safety  of the data they collect from their customers. He used the example of agency banking in underserved areas, noting that if they fail to provide good services, customers will lose trust.