FSI hackathon to boost financial inclusion in Nigeria

Financial Service Innovators, a non-profit organisation committed to enabling start-ups within the tech and financial space is set to hold a hackathon, in order to promote and achieve the targets of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS).

According to the organisation, the event themed, ‘Financial Inclusion for All’, will be in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Flourish Ventures, AXA Mansard, and NIBSS, which will be held during the NACOS annual conference taking place in Abeokuta, Ogun State from August 16 to 18, 2022.

However, a webinar was held on Wednesday, 20 July, 2022 as part of pre-event activities, and was attended by students of 30 tertiary institutions from the six
geo-political zones of the country.

Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, executive director, FSI traced the history of financial inclusion hackathons in Nigeria, stating that it began in October 2021 as a means of discovering Tech talents in tertiary institutions, and to change the current narrative in the nation’s digital ecosystem.

“The objectives of this ‘Financial Inclusion for All’ hackathon are to change the lifestyle of Nigerians from cash to cashless transactions, and to encourage seamless conduct of business via digital platforms,” she said.

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However, while the hackathon will begin on August 16 with several teams building their solutions, the organisation explained that the pitching of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) will take place on August 18, 2022, adding that over 60 teams have already registered for this challenge.

Njideka Nwabukwu, head, Strategy coordination office, Financial Inclusion Delivery Unit, Central Bank of Nigeria, represented by Paul Oluikpe, head, Financial Inclusion Delivery Unit, CBN disclosed that the targets of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy have not been met due to the hiccups afflicting stakeholders in the industry.

Nwabukwu identified the impediments on the path of NFIS to include inadequate infrastructure by banks in rural areas, poor mobile telephone network penetration in some parts of the country, and high operational cost by service providers.

According to her, other factors hindering financial inclusion in Nigeria are lack of innovation by operators, limited competition, and unsuitable business
implementation.

She disclosed that the CBN would keep churning out forward-thinking regulations that will guide Financial Services Providers and innovators in the financial
inclusion space.

“The financial inclusion targets can only be attained with effective collaboration of stakeholders,” she said.

Similarly, Olaolu Awojoodu, chief executive officer, Electronic Settlement Group, rendered an overview on financial inclusion challenges in Nigeria noting that lack of
access to affordable technology, religious and cultural beliefs, as well as barriers created by lack of trust from consumers, were some of the factors hampering financial inclusion in the country.

“Although, the Financial Inclusion Strategy is targeted majorly at the banked and unbanked in the society, with all the banks in Nigeria having less than 6,000 branches, it is not surprising that the target of the NFIS has been slow,” Awojoodu said.

Olamilekan Toheeb, NACOS president, in his closing remarks commended the facilitators and urged the participating teams to work hard for success.