The business community in Nigeria and players in the Fintech sector have been charged to take advantage of the opportunities that abound in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) by developing intra-African payment solutions to ease trade settlements.
L-R: Liman V. Liman, DG, Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations and Ag. Chief Trade Negotiator; Stanley Peters, ED, Technology Development & Innovation, Global Accelerex; Sen. Ibrahim Musa, Chairman, NEPC; Tunde Ogungbade, MD, Global Accelerex, and Sam Egube, Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos State, at the PoS Innovation Summit organised by Global Accelerex recently at Eko Hotel, Lagos.
This recommendation, amongst others, was discussed at the 7th Edition of PoS Innovation Summit organised by Global Accelerex with the theme “African Continental Free Trade Agreement : Driving Borderless Trade Through Fintech”.
Gathered at Eko Hotel and Suites last week was a sea of curious heads: from financial regulators to senior bankers, from top management staff of Fintech companies to major players in the import and export space; the summit had delegates from all walks of life who came to get critical insight on how Fintech can drive AfCFTA, one of the hottest topical issues in continental discourse today.
Tunde Ogungbade, Managing Director of Global Accelerex, set the tone for the event with thought-provoking questions in his welcome remark, which centered around how Fintechs can facilitate easy and seamless payment across Africa in this new era of borderless trade and how the former bottlenecks and barriers can translate to breakthroughs and possibilities for continental commerce.
Riding on his tide, the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, who was represented by the DG, Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations, Liman V. Liman, explained the intricacies of the treaty, pointing out that African countries stood to gain a whole lot by doing business with each another.
He opined that the pact, which has a goal to create a single market that allows free flow of goods and services across the African continent, would expand intra-African trade through harmonisation, liberalisation and facilitation of trade instruments across Africa.
During his keynote address, Mr. Kunle Elebute, the Senior Partner, KPMG Nigeria and Chairman, KPMG Africa, who was ably represented by Senior Manager, Technology Advisory at KPMG, Mr. Hilary Daudu succinctly explained that the non-existence of automated, secure, real-time and cost effective payment settlement systems across the African region leads to high cost of transactions and increases the viability of trading options outside the continent.
He urged Fintechs to leverage the Pan-African Payments and Settlement System to enable their customers send and receive fast, real-time retail and large value payments across Africa in their local currencies.
Speaking at the event, Senator Ibrahim Musa, the Chairman of Nigerian Export Promotion Council, reiterated the government’s support to Nigerian exporters and revealed some of the initiatives that were already put in place such as the Export Expansion Grant.
To contextualise the issues raised by the keynote speakers, the panel discussion session, which was moderated by the Head of Business News at Channels TV, Boason Omofaye, addressed the concerns raised by participants about impediments faced in their business transactions across Africa.
Panellists included the Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Sam Egube; ED, Shared Services and Products, Fidelity Bank, Chijioke Ugochukwu; a member of NACCIMA, Kunle Eyitemi; a representative of the NEPC, Samuel Oyeyipo; and an exporter, Yetunde Adekunle.
As the conference came to a close, the burden of curiosity that rested on the faces of the participants at the beginning had lifted. In its place, hope and excitement were easily palpable. It was obvious that the summit had served its purpose, as attendees were eagerly looking forward to taking new territories with seamless payment processes on the wider African continent, a possibility that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) guarantees.