Lagos Hosts Fintech Week to Celebrate Fintech Achievements

To celebrate Fintech achievements and opportunities with focus on funds and payments, capital markets, insurance innovations, block chain and cyber security, the world’s attention will be on the city of Lagos as it hosts the Lagos Fintech Week in October.

In a statement signed by the chairman of organizing committee, Dr. Yele Okeremi said “Each day we will focus on a different topic. We shall ensure that there is plenty of time for networking and meeting other innovators”.

He added that there will be ‘Investor Summit’ that aims to enhance access to “funding for startups and improve the quality and quantity of Fintech investment deals in Nigeria”.

Lagos Fintech Week is a series of conferences, exhibitions, workshops, hackathons, meetups and awards. It would attract Fintech start-ups, technology companies, investors, financial institutions, research institutes and innovation professionals to engage the ecosystem in a stimulating discussions, demos and insightful debates.

Since Lagos is now innovations hub where diverse financial technology solutions and opportunities are being created daily, he informed, it is imperative that the city host Lagos Fintech Week, which has as its theme, Fintech: Exploring the Huge Opportunities. The event would hold from October 2 to 5, 2018 at Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

Citing reason for the hosting of the event in Lagos, Okeremi said Lagos boast a huge network of customers with an abundance of local and international talents in finance and entrepreneurship.

“Lagos has the ideal ecosystem for Fintech enterprises to succeed. Lagos has seen a vast increase in number of incubator and accelerator programmes over the past 6 years. Lagos offers many advantages for Fintech business.

This regional financial hub features a dynamic business culture, a growing technological infrastructure, a huge network of customers, regulatory support and a world-class talent pool.

“Alongside this, an increasing number of Fintech events have turned the industry into a bustling community, opening the door to greater expertise and increased support for enterprises, and providing countless opportunities for innovators to showcase ideas, meet industry experts, and access training and funding opportunities.

Okeremi added that different impactful activities that will showcase diverse opportunities for all participants at different categories are lined up at the summit.

These are opportunities the startups community to participate in the Hackceleration, learn from industry leaders and experts at the conferences, submit implemented solutions for the Fintech awards and network with the Fintech ecosystem.

Other opportunities include a window for investors and financial institutions to source for deals at the Investor Summit, Demo & Deal Day, listen to pitches at the Hackceleration demo day, share knowledge with fellow industry leaders and experts in the conferences, and listen to financial regulators at the conferences.

According to Dr. Okeremi, “the Lagos Fintech Hackceleration seeks the most innovative start-ups that can address problem statements contribute by the local and global Fintech community and the financial services industry.

“We are inviting start-ups to apply to the programme and demonstrate how they can innovate to address these problem statements. There will be five teams and we will match them with industry champions to customize their market-ready solutions into contextualized prototypes ready for adoption”.

The Chairman also mentioned that there will be workshop that will be organized by partners to gain insights and learn from industry experts that will hold in various venues across the city.

“There will be Open Banking Master class that will enable third party developers to build applications and services around financial institutions, as well as endows customers with greater financial empowerment and transparency. Underpinning open banking is open standards and technology to achieve these outcomes,” he said.

Explaining what the participants would benefits at the Master Class for Open Banking at the Lagos Fintech Week, which is a collaboration between Fintech 1000+ and Open Technology Foundation, Adedeji Olowe said through the Master class, “participants will get an in-depth understanding on open banking system, architecture and design, as well as firsthand experience that demonstrates the collaboration between Fintech to deliver real world applications swiftly to delight customers”.

Salami Abolore, MD/CEO of Riby Finance, the company that is hosting the Hackceleration at the Lagos Fintech Week, said that high-impact innovations are always the result of “motivated, multidisciplinary teams”, which is why among all applicants “we will carefully choose at most 60 participants for the Hackceleration.

“We are expecting active, knowledgeable and forward-thinking individuals and teams who realize that the only constant in business life are changes and improvements.

All innovative individuals and teams from Nigeria can participate at the event, as physical persons. The application is open until all available places are filled”, he said.

Other side attractions at the summit are Nigerian Fintech Awards, Demo and Deal Day. Demo and Deal Day will showcase promising Fintech startups and innovative technologies to local and global investors, with a view towards facilitating Fintech investment deals.