Experts in the digital industry have listed financial inclusion as part of the broader measures Nigeria must implement, if it must match up with other progressive economies in the drive towards a digital economy.
Around 36 percent of its over 106 million adults do not have access to any form of financial services, including a savings account, credit and insurance, according to EFInA data, a situation some experts attribute to slowing Nigeria’s quest to achieve its dream of becoming a digital economy.
At the 2022 Legal Business conference in Lagos, professionals in the Fintech and blockchain subsector of the financial industry said that Nigeria is losing billions of naira owing to its inability to explore and maximize the myriads of opportunities inherent in the digital world like its peers.
Iyere Ihenyen, president, Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association (SIBAN) said that to fully digitize, Nigeria needs to get five things right.
This includes investment in digital infrastructure, including broadband connectivity in both urban and rural areas.
Nigeria must also invest in both public and private digital platforms to support digital services and ecommerce as well as invest in digital financial services in order to boost financial inclusion.
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The country must also invest in digital skills through massive capacity building programs targeted at its teeming youths and it ought to invest in policy development that will encourage and support digital entrepreneurship and innovation across sectors of the economy, not stifle it.
Ihenyen noted that these five investments will cost Nigeria a lot of money. Based on current realities, he estimates that Nigeria may need over $10billion every year for the next 15 years to bridge the current gaps across the spectrum of the digital economy.
“While what Nigeria has lost due to our inability to explore the digital space may not be quantified in monetary value, it is not unsafe to say that Nigeria has lost at least the size of its current GDP to its inability to leverage its digital economy for significant economic growth and development,” Ihenyen said.
Speaking on opportunities inherent in the digital space for lawyers, Ifeoma Ben, convener and founder of Legal Business Network revealed that the advent of technology has opened up vast opportunities through which legal luminaries could offer 21st century Services to clients, only if they factor in current trends.
“The advent of technology has revolutionized the way lawyers sell legal services. Lawyers must keep up with technological changes that impact the practice of law. There are opportunities for lawyers in the blockchain space; therefore there is a need for lawyers to acquire the skills needed to create legal solutions for their clients in the technology space,” said Ben.
She further said that the recent unveiling of eNaira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) really exposed myriads of issues that needed critical examination by experts in the digital space.
Rather than making some policy pronouncement which inhibits budding digital entrepreneurs from exploring and maximising the digital space, she said the regulator should strike a balance between regulation and innovation where both the government, operators, investors and other stakeholders would be safe and operate for economic growth development and sustenance.
“The recent unveiling of the eNaira by the CBN has exposed many legal issues and the inherent opportunities in the burgeoning blockchain and financial technology ecosystem. Technology is the future. There is a need for regulators to strike a balance between regulation and innovation hence the theme of the Legal Business Conference 2022 – Regulating Blockchain and Fintech Innovations: Finding the Balance,” she maintained.
Other digital enthusiasts drawn from the legal Profession, banking, economics and other disciplines said Nigeria would advance in leaps with the right regulatory framework and a supportive environment for operators and investors to thrive as other countries were doing.
They said digital underutilization and lack of sound policy is setting the country back and urged the regulator to better engage with professionals across board and seek out ways to balance regulation with incentives that will attract investments.
