FirstBank Promotes Financial Inclusion Through Digitalisation in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Foremost financial provider, FBN Limited has announced to the public the organization having a Joint Seminar with sub-Saharan African Banking and Telecom Regulators to promote financial inclusion through digital innovations in sub-Saharan Africa. The event which was held in Lagos recently was themed “Advancing e-Payment and Digital Innovations in Africa- Evolution of Nigeria’s Payment Systems”.

The aim of the seminar was to provide the key officers of the regulatory authorities in these Markets in notably locations with FirstBank subsidiaries which includes; Ghana, Senegal, DRC, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It is a platform to get familiar with developments in the Nigerian Payment Systems and Digital Products Industry thereon replicating and adopting the learnings from the seminar with a view to bolster the finance industry in their respective countries.

Key players and regulators in the finance and digital banking ecosystem at the event included: Agada Apochi, Managing Director/CEO, Unified Payment Services Ltd; Mike Ogbalu, CEO, Verve International; Musa Jimoh, Deputy Director, Payments System Policy and Oversight, Central Bank of Nigeria; Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director, NIBSS; Bashirat Odunewu, Group Executive, International Banking Group, FirstBank and Adesola Adeduntan, CEO, First Bank of Nigeria Limited amongst others.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, First Bank Nigeria Limited, Adesola Adeduntan, speaking on FirstBank’s leading role in promoting digital banking and financial inclusion; “FirstBank by any measure has been a success story as far as digital banking is concerned.

Today, we have more than 8.5million people on our USSD *894# banking platform, more than 3 million people on our Firstmobile platform. We are the only Bank in Nigeria that has issued cards in excess of 10 million in Nigeria. When you are looking at that institution that has achieved a lot in terms of digital payment, it is FirstBank. More than 80% of our transactions are carried out on our digital channels.”

Speaking further, he noted; “We have been very aggressive with our FirstBank Agent Banking network. Today we have over 27000 agents spread across the nooks and crannies of the country, indeed second to none as far as Nigeria is country. At FirstBank, the economic growth and development of our host communities is important to us; assisting Nigeria and the continent at large address poverty is very imperative and that is why for us financial inclusion is a key part of our business strategy”, he explains.