By RARZACK OLAEGBE
To start and run a successful business is not easy. Ask a seasoned businessperson. You may have the experience, but market changes could derail your plans. The market could challenge your experience. Your wit could wither. Your thinking could shrink. Your market could disappear. But if you persist, you could strike gold. One day. Like Jason Njoku.
On the one hand
The fintech army has not given up. That is why the troop is marching forward despite the odds. If the fintech, banks, telcos, mobile money operators, payment terminal service, and payment solution army had dropped the ball, there would be no glory. It would be all gloomy.
On the other hand
If the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) comes after 2023, it could have failed. The banks’ network failure would have ushered it in.
In the long term
COVID-19 was the wind behind the fintech sail. Without the pandemic, I am unsure if fintech would have had any impact in 2020. Remember the scenario. Every household was in isolation. You could not step out. Yet you needed to visit friends and family. The isolation policy was in force. You could not visit the banking hall. Yet you needed to make transactions. This case paved the way for online transactions. That was when fintech’s might was tested. It passed.
According to one of the players, that was when fintech came alive. Fintech shone. Even when the banks were lagging, fintech thrived. Then, in January 2023, the CBN enforced the cashless policy. The cashless policy came to develop and modernise our payment system. To ensure it ranks among the top 20 economies by the year 2020 (Vision 2020).
The CBN said there was a high cost of cash along the value chain. It said everyone bears the high costs associated with the volume of cash handling. The chief banker said the policy would lead to increased convenience. More service options. Cheaper access to (out-of-branch) banking services. But did the CBN have an inkling of how the policy would succeed? Or did the policy meet an efficient fintech system that helped to catapult it? Could the cashless policy have gained traction without fintech?
Well, the banks pushed the envelope. The banks did what they could. Banks are not as agile as the fintech firms. And there is no way the two entities can compete on the same pedestal. Rather, they must collaborate. That is what is happening. But in the cashless era, fintech pushed the needle by offering instant and near-perfect service. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was perfect. Then, as the seamless service gained popularity, more Nigerians joined. Therefore, the train force of banks and fintech increased the cashless velocity.
Chika Nwosu, managing director of Palmpay, in a media report, said we have a near-perfect system. That is because we have a transaction success rate of about 99.98%. I think that is almost a near-perfect transaction system. Fintech is all about technology. We can build a technology that can sustain a huge number of people doing transactions at the same time on the platform without it failing.
That is what fintech has done for the country. Had fintech not attended the party, would the banks have dropped the ball? And the cashless policy would become a case of less cash. I would not know. Maybe you do.
In the short term
This is the best time to start any business. Especially fintech.
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