The CEO of eTranzact Plc, one of Africa’s top payment services providers, Niyi Toluwalope, has urged stakeholders to invest more in digital payment technologies while highlighting the significance of funding infrastructure and technological advancements that make digital payments easier to use.
Such expenditures are essential for encouraging more people to enter the digital payment arena, which will lead to substantial economic growth, he said in a recent interview on Channels Television.
According to Toluwalope, there are numerous opportunities brought about by financial inclusion. Nigeria has a lot to offer in terms of financial inclusion given its sizeable population. With 140 million mobile phone users and more than 200 million Nigerians, there is a lot of room for financial inclusion.
Just 60 to 65 million of the 140 million are banked; the remaining 65 to 70 million are employed in the unorganized sector. A billion-dollar company can be created by integrating even a small portion of these people into the financial services ecosystem.
He had this to say: “One of the great things here is financial inclusion—how to get the bulk of the citizens into the financial services ecosystem to enable them to make payments, save, access insurance, credit, and other services that can drive entrepreneurship, support SMEs, and boost the economy.”
He went on to discuss the notable changes in digital payments throughout time. The investment in technology that makes these operations possible is one of the main factors driving eTranzact’s daily facilitation of smooth electronic transactions.
Encouraging those who are excluded to become involved and take part in financial transactions requires fostering trust and confidence within the ecosystem. In response to the question of whether Point-of-Sale (POS) systems endanger the nation’s financial inclusion, he said: “I wouldn’t see that as a risk; it’s an enabler. You want to bring people who have never trusted brick-and-mortar financial institutions into the financial services ecosystem. Expecting them to use a complex machine they have no connection with is unrealistic compared to a POS terminal operator who sells goods in a rural ecosystem.”
He cited a 2012 study that showed how Nigerians’ cultural requirement to handle currency has a big impact on the country’s acceptance of cashless systems. Convenience and trust are essential.
POS terminals are convenient—they are always available—and they provide trust since you can see the person you are doing business with. If you need money, you can even give the operator a call late at night. Business expansion will result from investments in infrastructure for digital payments and technology that makes access easier. Even though these technical characteristics might require less money, Toluwalope thinks that some money will still be needed.
“Even in more advanced countries with widespread digital payments, cash is still used to some degree depending on the demographic. This is critical for Nigeria because reports indicate that money in the informal sector is almost as significant as that in the formal sector but not captured in formal trading.”
According to him on the performance of eTranzact: “For us, the numbers are impressive. Consistently, for the past 16 quarters, eTranzact has exceeded its expectations. We started our transformation journey in 2019, revamping our strategy to focus on switching infrastructure, merchant marketplace, merchant activity, and then direct-to-consumer services, which include our financial inclusion business and our digital bank.
“We are a switch, a central infrastructure, a backbone for the industry. We’re leveraging that to build merchant-acquiring activity and transform the financial inclusion space. We’re also using it to build our digital bank, creating several features for a wide demographic of Nigerians to conduct financial transactions.
“Somehow, we are not affected by most of these headwinds because our business is just like the food business. People eat at whatever ceremony. And so it is the same with payments. Every time you’re making a payment, you could reduce the frequency or increase the value, but at every point in time, you’re making payments. We are a switching infrastructure. We sit at the back end of all the debits, credits, and all the settlement positions. So, eTranzact will always be crucial in the financial landscape,” he added.
