Lagos has everything for everybody. It has something for you. The city is one of the most amazing places in the world. It has wonderful beaches, skyscrapers and parks. The entertainment options are unlimited. As a city, Lagos has more job opportunities beyond your imaginations. That is why undergraduates want to serve in Lagos. Young executives want to work in Lagos. Artisan, mason and cobbler want to earn a living in Lagos.

They all troop in, searching for that one lost gold coin. Some find it. Others found it. It is not magic. It is not luck. It is hard work. It is tenacity. It is sheer doggedness. Akwaaba Lagos! Welcome to Lagos. As a rough diamond, Lagos has become a world-class destination. You can argue these facts if you like. Soro Soke!

Lagos has won awards as the city with densely populated areas, busy streets, dirty drains and massive traffic jams in Nigeria. With these awards, would you say Lagos still an amazing city? Yes. It has a flamboyant ruling class. It has several kings, kings with extravagant spaces and places. You are not a king if you don’t have a retinue of sidekicks and side chicks. If you are a regular at one of the prodigious parties, you will party all year round. Scrumptious, delicious and luscious, Lagos party scene has it. If you live in Lagos, you will not want to leave Lagos. You cannot argue that fact. But maybe you are right. After all, Lagos is imperfect. Then, think about it. No city is perfect.

Lagos has one good thing. Lagos has a thriving Fintech ecosystem. I didn’t say that. Startup Blink has confirmed it.

So in its imperfection, Lagos has one good thing. Lagos has a thriving Fintech ecosystem. I didn’t say that. Startup Blink has confirmed it. In its 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Rankings, Startup Blink has analysed 1,000 cities and 100 countries. Lagos has emerged as the best startup ecosystem in Africa. It ranked ahead of Kenya and Cape Town.

That is not surprising. When the financial services payment processor, Strike was looking for a Fintech startup to acquire, Strike boarded a plane all the way from California, USA and landed in Lagos. The company came for a startup called Paystack. Stripe paid about $8 billion for the startup that was birthed in the bowel of Lagos, the imperfect city.

However, with its imperfection, Lagos has its own week when it celebrates Fintech. Lagos Fintech Week is a global event that showcases Fintech opportunities, solutions, services and partnerships through the lens of Lagos as a city. Held annually, the event has attracted participants from diverse institutions in Lagos and outside Nigeria. For instance, in the 2020 edition, the British Deputy High Commissioner, Ben Llewellyn-Jones and Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo were among the dignitaries that delivered keynotes.

Besides, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], Ade Shonubi attended Lagos Fintech Week in 2019. He unveiled some significant numbers concerning Lagos as a leading state in terms of cashless transactions. Rising from 2020 edition, however, Fintech experts who spoke at the event revealed what so many people did not know about Lagos.

In its beautiful imperfection, Lagos has over 14.3 million metro population. The city has 30 per cent active payments terminal penetration. In the country, Lagos has more banked population at 64 per cent than other states. It has a high number of bank branches. It has more automated teller machines than other states. It has more mobile money and bank agents. The Fintech experts then concluded that Lagos “is ripe for a cashless scheme”. You don’t think so? You must be dreaming.

Well, kindly return to earth. According to the Fintech mavens, Lagos has a widespread telecommunication infrastructure coverage. It has a strong retail and transport networks. The city has a growing adoption for digital finance. It has robust participation in the Fintech ecosystem. It has a significant diversity of financial technology service players more than any other states. If you are still seeing Lagos through your defective lens, you would not see these milestones.

All the Fintech specialists at the highly cerebral Lagos Fintech Week agreed that Lagos is an international business hub. They envisioned that Lagos needs a cashless revolution. The cashless revolution, they chorused, should ideally be driven by local needs. It should also reflect global directions for payment systems. It should have a technology stack. It should have products architecture and access models.

With its inadequacy, Lagos has a higher rate of financial access and inclusion than the rest of the country. Maybe that is why Lagos has more economic and money laundering activities than other states, too? You will not scrutinise that part because it fits into the picture in your mind. Maybe that is how the mind works. But that is not how Lagos works. Lagos is still under construction, and under those sand dunes, have emerged significant signposts.

In addition, it is what you have inside of you that shines through when you reside in Lagos. If you can engineer software that can perform magic and make Mitchell Elegbe and John Obaro green with envy, Lagos will help you birth it, nurture it and transform it into a unicorn.

Snuggling on Lagos Island is the first unicorn in Africa. Interswitch is not a pushover. Visa has come to eat at the dining table of Interswitch. That story has been told over and over. However, another impactful Fintech firm, the only one with its own magnificent edifice, SystemSpecs resides on Lagos Island, Lekki. In fact, SystemSpecs came from the dirt of Obalende. For many years, SystemSpecs reigned as the Obalende King.

Today, it has relinquished that title. SystemSpecs, a 28-year old Fintech company, has evolved from a 5-man software firm to an African technology giant with ground-breaking solutions including Remita, HumanManager and Paylink. It has become the epitome of what every Fintech startup aspires. This is a fact. You cannot argue this one.

In addition, it is what you have inside of you that shines through when you reside in Lagos. If you can engineer software that can perform magic and make Mitchell Elegbe and John Obaro green with envy, Lagos will help you birth it, nurture it and transform it into a unicorn. On the other hand, if you are a tiger, that is what Lagos will feed.

Lagos has a challenge for the next Fintech startup. What does it have for you? Paystack has conquered its own hurdle. That is why the managers of Strike was mesmerized by the amazing works Shola and Ezra have put into Paystack. Paystack stacked its prevue so high so that Strike paid so much to acquire it. Flutterwave may be headquartered in California, it is a perfect extract from the imperfection of Lagos. Lagos has everything. Fintech, filth and funk. What does Lagos have for you?

*Olaegbe (psalmsonolaegbe@gmail.com)

The post Why Lagos Fintech leads others in spite of its imperfection appeared first on Frontpageng.

Although many of the banks have invested in sexy water dispensers and thinner plasma television, these acquisitions do not have a reassuring effect on the nerves of a frustrated customer. Besides, many of the banks sited their headquarters on the Lagos Island. Others are on the mainland. One of them recently relocated to Lagos in order to join the party. Anyway, because a bank’s headquarters is nestling on another side of town does not make the bank smart. All bank customers have a resemblance. Some are frustrated; others are yet to be frustrated.

Meanwhile, I am sure you know that we have three types of banks in Nigeria. Some banks are indigenous. Some are foreign. Others are mixed. The mixed is jointly owned by foreigners and Nigerians. The foreign ones are fully owned and controlled by foreigners. However, some bank customers do not care about the heritage of the bank. They just want to be served properly. That is why some of the customers visit another branch in another side of the city to get good services. Others are contented with the mainland ethos. The staff, however, have no say in this matter. Some are married, the majority are single.

If the Nigerian banks shift in their thinking, the smallest action will increase customer experience. This will in turn increase customer satisfaction. Then, some banks will stand out.

Aside from this, you do not need an oracle to understand the difference between the local banks and the ones abroad. The Nigerian banks pursue a cash deposit. The foreign ones approach customers with a credit facility. For instance, some colleagues were in Kenya to attend a Fintech conference. At a dinner with the hosts, a bank manager offered a business loan to my colleagues.

The manager’s goal was to make it easy for the “businessmen to run a profitable business”. Shocked, the Nigerians refused the loan offer. The manager was stunned. The hosts laughed hysterically. When everything calmed down, the host introduced the Nigerians. Then, everybody laughed some more. However, what happened in Nigeria recently is not a laughing matter. A mixed bank is not a good example of banking. The bank was out to frustrate the customer from the onset. This is the story.

Your corporate account was dormant. It was activated. Know your customer mandate and other official shenanigans were done. You had to do endure the paper process because the fund was expected to hit the account. You know, the survival of many people was tied to the fund. Therefore, you did what was required to ensure the account was okay. Then, on the verge of transferring the fund into the beneficiaries’ accounts, #EndSARS protest erupted in Lagos. Gosh! Not now, please. Can you postpone the protest to another day? You prayed silently. You didn’t get an answer because the protest forced the bank branch to close shop. You were advised to visit another branch. You did. Then your frustration mounted.

To verify your signature, the bank verification number [BVN] status was compulsory. It is a Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN]’s standing instruction. You placed your index finger on the biometric machine. It read your fingerprints in seconds. But, not so fast. Sorry, your BVN status was incorrect. Your names were not placed in the “correct position”. Your middle name was missing. To find this, you must return to the originating bank. That is not a problem. You shunned the luxury of your car and flagged down a motorbike.  You were in another bank.

The customer service personnel requested your “government-issued identity card” that “captured your middle name”. Your driver’s license sufficed. He returned your driver’s license. You need a “sworn affidavit” document to back your request. He told you without blinking. Time was 4 pm! Your legs felt like lead. Cold sweat streamed down your armpits. The nearest court was miles away. You flagged down another motorbike and disappeared. You made it to the court premises. But the “commissioner of the oath” has left!

It was a Friday. What’s the solution? The court clerk collected the document. You left and waited for another 48 hours in frustration. On a Monday, with the affidavit in hand, you got to the bank. The BVN was corrected. Did you hear him say it would be ready in two to four hours? You smiled. Time dragged slowly. Sensing your restlessness, the bank teller called. “Madam, your BVN would be ready in 24 hours!” Then your heart skipped a beat!

With eyes closed, questions tumbled in your mind. What has happened to technology? Why can’t I correct my BVN via a link? Why can’t it be delivered to me via SMS? Why wait for 24 hours when I need it now? Who has turned a BVN technology into a slow-moving train? Why can’t the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System [NIBSS] open the application programming interface? Why can’t we allow young brains to innovate around the BVN? Frustrated, you trudged out of the banking hall. You headed home. The sun tingled your eyes.

In Retail Banking Trends and Predictions 2017 report, improving the customer experience is a top priority for banks around the world. Nigerian banks should adopt the same focus.

An old shrivelled man shuffled past you with his guide. He had come for BVN verification. You are too frustrated to give the man and his situation a thought. But, technology could have saved the day. Anyway, the BVN was perfected. You were back in the first bank. “Please come with me”. The bank manager approached you. Seated in his office, he told you tales. The bank branch could not respond to the email. #EndSARS protest caused the delay. He told you sweetly as if he was describing his birthday cake.

As a lady, you were too frustrated to talk. Meanwhile, the other people who relied on the funds for survival had sent you stinkers. You are a fleece! One of the short messages insulted you. This came after you have explained the scenario to the fund-owners. Anyway, on the second week after the #EndSARS protest, you called the bank manager. You couldn’t shout. All you needed was to transfer the funds to the leeches. Get on with your life. So, on this sunny day, you sauntered into the banking hall. Your goal was to get the transfer done. After another four frustrating hours, it didn’t happen. You were close to tears. What happened? The BVN impasse is alive. It is quite frustrating.

If it is difficult to amend, can technology make it easy? If technology is not working, can we innovate around it and make it better? Nigerian banks do not think so. It is evident in the way customers are approached. It is evident in their customer engagement. It is evident in the manner the customer is treated.  For Nigerian banks, customer experience is the battlefield. Banking is a customer-facing industry. Technology can help. But it needs trust to thrive.

According to The Financial Brand, customer experience results in customer satisfaction and retention. Nigerian banks need to rethink their customer experience initiatives. In Retail Banking Trends and Predictions 2017 report, improving the customer experience is a top priority for banks around the world. Nigerian banks should adopt the same focus.

This is because most bank customers are knowledgeable. They are demanding. They are tech-savvy. They have high expectations. If the Nigerian banks shift in their thinking, the smallest action will increase customer experience. This will in turn increase customer satisfaction. Then, some banks will stand out. Until then, all the Nigerian bank are the same. Please, don’t believe otherwise.

*Olaegbe (psalmsonolaegbe@gmail.com; Tweet @RarzackO;   Skype:rarzackolaegbe).

The post How to become a frustrated bank customer in Nigeria, By Rarzack Olaegbe appeared first on Frontpageng.

At your bank branch, you would meet a market scene with a beehive of customers. You would therefore be required to obtain a tally number. Then you would join a queue. If you are a trader or a businessman, your cheque would sleep for a week at the clearinghouse. If you cannot wait for a week, you would dare the consequences. That means you would travel to your destination. To make time, you would book the night bus. You would ferry your stack of cash in a Ghana-must-go-bag.

Definitely, you are not sure if trouble would be lurking on the way. Well, it is a risk you must take unless you are prepared to wait a week for your cheque to clear.  It is your choice. Meanwhile, the bank’s choice would be to close for business at 1 o’clock.  But it is not the tellers’ choice to spend several hours reconciling the books. Oh, lest I forget, you would not need a Bank Verification Number, no. The list of what you would get by activating finance without technology is endless.

But because technology has married finance, the transaction has gone haywire. Today, from your closet you can transfer fund to me and several others. You don’t need a tally number. You can receive fund from across the seas. Technology has cut through the mountains. It has permeated the oceans. It has levelled the valleys. All Goliaths have been conquered. There is no barrier to banking and finance any more. The only limitation exists in your mind.

The protestors preferred fintech as a platform to receive funding from Nigerians and Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Now, financial technology or fintech has made everything so easy. Do you think you cannot obtain a loan without collateral? Do you think you cannot transact business with PayPal? GetBarter by Flutterwave says you can do so. Some dreadlocks-wearing, laptop-clutching and beard-spotting youths have turned the world of finance on its head. They have blurred the lines between loan and credit. You now have Nano credits. The credits your bank cannot touch. The credits your bank would not touch. The banks would not touch these credits because they are too hot to handle, too risky to embrace and too spicy to swallow.

However, these credits are favoured by young executives and other Nigerians who cannot endure the end-of-month-wait before getting paid. In their millions, Nigerians are turning to the online credit companies for a salary advance. No, not so fast. You cannot join the club easily. If you are not sociable, you cannot access the loan. If your social reputation score is not on the ascendancy, you cannot access the loan. Some smart thinking, hardworking and progressive young minds are making the impossible, possible. They are making the unbelievable, credible. So, what has this story got to do with #EndSARS? That is the beginning of the story. Let us dive in.

The thesis was written by Rafiu Oyesola Salawu and Mary Kehinde Salawu, 2007, The Emergence of Internet Banking in Nigeria: an appraisal of information technology journal, the authors informed that computerization in the Nigeria banking industry came in the 1970s. Societe General Bank deployed the first automated teller machine. Before then, few banks have adopted the Local Area Network to link their branches. Others implemented the Wide Area Network to connect branches with other cities.

Since then banking activities in Nigeria have increasingly depended on the development of technology. In service organization like the banks, information flows more than physical items. As such, many banks have expanded their offerings of electronic banking products. With the deployment of technology, money is now stored in a medium such as cheques, credit cards and electronic means than in its pure cash form.

These have helped the banks to augment their distribution networks with transactional websites. The practice has allowed bank customers to open accounts, check balances, transfer funds and make and receive payment over the internet. Due to this fact, many banks have created interfaces. They have built portals and apps. It is now more of a competition and egoism rather than offering customers value-added service. All of these have made the transaction very easy for the customers.

The need to innovate and modernize banking for improved service delivery and convenience led to the adoption of internet and electronic banking. Today, you can verify your accounts online and do much more real-time. Switches have been built. Different value-adding products have been layered on the switches. Fintech has thrown up products like Paystack, Flutterwave, Paga, Paylink and similar products. Thus, you have completely forgotten the past.

To prosecute their protests, however, the organisers turned to another technology, bitcoin. That is the power of technology.

Welcome to the present. A new report by McKinsey & Company has shown the Nigerian fintech ecosystem raised more than $600 million in funding between 2014 and 2019.  The report noted fintech attracted 25 per cent at $122 million of the $491.6 million raised by African startups in 2019. That is second to Kenya. Kenya attracted $149 million. Nigerian fintech companies are primarily focused on payments and consumer lending.

The report indicated that banking in Nigeria remains an attractive sector with over $9 billion in value pools. That is why Paystack, a fintech company was acquired by Stripe for about N74 billion. Fintech experts have opined that full optimisation of fintech companies in Nigeria can stimulate economic activity. Fintech can create a multiplier effect. Fintech can drive progress towards development goals.

At a seminar organised for Finance Correspondents of media houses in Lagos recently, the Managing Director/CEO of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Mr Umaru Ibrahim corroborated McKinsey & Company’s report. McKinsey said Nigeria’s youthful population, increasing smartphone penetration and a focused regulatory drive to increase financial inclusion and cashless payments have provided an enabling environment for the over 200 fintech companies to thrive.

That is why the #EndSARS eggheads turned to fintech and not the banks. The protestors preferred fintech as a platform to receive funding from Nigerians and Nigerians in the Diaspora. Flutterwave was the payment platform of choice, not a bank. However, before Flutterwave was closed, sources closed to the eggheads said about N100 million have been realised.

This fundraising attracted the attention of the authority. Therefore, Flutterwave, the payment platform and a virtual bank used to process the donations was shut. To prosecute their protests, however, the organisers turned to another technology, bitcoin. That is the power of technology. That is what fintech did with #EndSARS. Dear friend, can you imagine payment without technology?

*Olaegbe (psalmsonolaegbe@gmail.com  Tweet @RarzackO   Skype:rarzackolaegbe)

The post What has Fintech got to do with #EndSARS?, By Rarzack Olaegbe appeared first on Frontpageng.