One of the compelling aspirations of the Federal Government
and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the last two years has been to ramp up
the numbers for financial inclusion in the country. To this end, Nigeria’s apex
bank, alongside other regulators in the financial services sector, including
the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), has vigorously pursued the agenda of
financial inclusion through various initiatives with a clear intent to bring
millions of Nigerians, especially those in the informal sector and the
unbanked, into the banked population. This ambition, which is not restricted to
banking alone, cuts across the full continuum of financial services, ranging from
bank accounts, insurance subscription, retirement savings account, and fund
investments, among others.
Perhaps the bedrock and main enabler of recent improvements
witnessed in the financial services sector in areas like customer experience
and service quality, speed to market of financial products and services and
quick turnaround time in processing financial transactions stems primarily from
advancements in modern information and communications technology, investment in
its adoption and integration. Leading financial services providers in the
country, especially the Deposit Money Banks (DMOs) have all embraced
innovations made available and possible by constantly evolving technology, in a
bid to remain relevant, grow market share, expand footprints, do business
profitably, stay ahead of the competition, and deliver more value to their
customers and other critical stakeholders.
The major setback many experts have however cited as the
bane of financial inclusion in Nigeria is the apparent distrust for financial
services institutions and low literacy levels among Nigerians. Credit must be
given to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria for
measures they have put in place to raise the bar on financial literacy in the
country as a panacea to driving financial inclusion, although a lot more work
is required if the low public confidence and trust in the financial services
sector is to receive any boost. Executive Director, Personal and Business
Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, Mr. Babatunde Macaulay, said that financial
inclusion is one issue that CBN is driving passionately and Stanbic IBTC and
other banks are part of that drive.
The question therefore is what must be done to effectively
remove this barrier and disincentive to financial inclusion in Nigeria. One
determinant that readily comes to mind is innovation and technology. This
perhaps must be why many commercial banks have been remodeling their
operational strategies to deemphasize focus on increasing footprint via branch
network expansion and steadily moving towards digitization and mobile
solutions. Original Equipment Manufacturers like Hewlett Packard or HP, Dell,
Samsung and other makers of computing devices had predicted many years ago that
the future of computing is mobile, hence the unprecedented revolution in the
handheld device and mobile phone industry.
Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, Dr. Demola
Sogunle, had also attested that the ongoing digital transformation and
revolution which the financial services sector is currently witnessing has only
just begun. The bank chief made this pronouncement during the official
commissioning of the bank’s first self-service
fully digital branch at the Maryland Mall in Lagos, in December last year.
Almost exactly a year before that, precisely in November, 2015, Stanbic
IBTC, in furtherance of ongoing digitization drive aimed at serving its
customers better through excellent and innovative products and
services, launched Africa’s very first personal teller machine (PTM), an
interactive automated teller machine that enables its customers perform
full banking activities.
The Personal Teller Machine is a device
that offers customers the benefits of both self-service video
banking and the branch teller experience combined in one
solution. The PTM combines video banking collaboration and
remote transaction processing banking technology embedded within the machine to
give customers the choice of self-service or connecting with a remote teller in
a highly personalized, two-way audio/video interaction. The machine’s
interactive nature helps to close the ‘intimacy gap’ that is currently missing
on the conventional automated teller machine (ATM). So if the objective of
the bank for deploying the PTM was to further enrich customers’ banking
experience by allowing them perform banking operations such as account
opening, cash deposit and withdrawal, cheque deposit and other general
account enquiries like account balance, loan enquiries, card related services,
among other functions, without having to use their debit cards, then this
purpose has ultimately being achieved. The total value of transactions done on
Stanbic IBTC Bank PTM as at March 2017 was N34,264,500; with total deposit
valued at N8,805,500, withdrawal valued at N25,459,000 in 1,985 sessions.
These numbers may suggest that the PTM has been a successful
innovative solution deployed by Stanbic IBTC to serve its customers. So in
spite of the enormous potential and benefits of the PTM, Stanbic IBTC went a
step further to explore other alternative solutions to deliver service to the
retail end of the market and this was mobile. Mobile is believed to present a
huge opportunity for Nigerian banks to drive financial inclusion, especially
considering the high mobile devices penetration rate in the country. The recent
trend by banks of reengineering and re-launching their mobile banking
application offerings clearly gives credence to this assertion.
Macaulay said Stanbic IBTC was one of the very first
financial institutions in Nigeria to revamp its mobile app which it launched
into the market in November 2016 to boost customer service delivery and
user experience. The app tagged ‘Appyness’ placed emphasis on seamless user
experience, aesthetics and convenience. He said one unique feature of Stanbic
IBTC Mobile App is that it offers banking, asset management, pension and mobile
money services on a single infrastructure. “The new app makes it possible for
customers to see their bank accounts, mobile wallet, pension and mutual fund
investments in one place, giving them total control of their money and
investments. Apart from being fast and dependable, the new app
is feature-rich, with capacity to conduct funds transfer, bills payment,
airtime purchase, cheque services, mobile money and lifestyle services. Its
other features, unavailable in most other banking apps, include monitoring
pension accounts, checking mutual funds account, redeeming and making
additional investments in mutual funds. The Stanbic IBTC Mobile App is the only
mobile platform that offers a convergence of financial services,” Macaulay
stated.
The ED said Stanbic IBTC believes technology is the best
way to go. He said that across the banking industry, the number of transactions
in the branches has reduced significantly whereas offsite transactions, whether
via the internet, mobile, ATMs, POS, have increased and continue to grow.
This position was reaffirmed by the Head, Mobile and
Acquiring Channels, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Francis Nwoboshi, while speaking at
the 2016 Annual Brands & Marketing Conference of the Brand Journalists’
Association of Nigeria (BJAN), in Lagos themed ‘Mobile Money in Nigeria -
Challenges, Opportunities, and Threats’. Nwoboshi said the
bank believes that Nigeria’s socio-economic demography presents
a considerable opportunity for innovative mobile propositions that
can deepen financial access in the country.
Technology is converging at an exigent speed while
disruptive technology and digital communications is impacting so much on
many traditional business models, including financial services. Nigerian
banks and other financial services providers must have realized that these are
very exciting times which require new thinking and approach or better put,
innovation.
A recent Accenture Consulting research on the future
of financial technology (fintech) and banking revealed that the
digital revolution in financial services is under way, but how this would
impact current banking players is unclear. It warned that digital disruption
has the potential to shrink the role and relevance of today’s banks, but could
all together help them create better, faster, cheaper services that make them
an even more essential part of everyday life for institutions and
individuals. As more Nigerian banks make a model shift towards
digitization and mobile, it is expected that this would positively impact the
nation’s desire to attain widespread financial inclusiveness and
promote transition to mobile banking solutions, e-Government
solutions, cashless policy and drive growth verticals for
business-to-business (B2B) mobile services.
0 Comments