The Chief Executive Officer of MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB) Nigeria, Eli Hini, said Nigeria has a better opportunity than other African countries to excel in financial and digital inclusion if traditional banks, PSBs and fintechs could work together.

In a statement issued by the company, Hini asserted a fireside chat at the fourth edition of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Startup Summit hosted by Vanguard and the Economic Forum Series in Lagos.

When asked what was preventing Nigeria from achieving financial inclusion success like Ghana and Kenya despite being Africa’s largest economy, Eli highlighted three areas of needs.

He said: “A lot of work has gone into agent banking and there is a good amount of point of sale (POS) and financial service points. What is next is for us to utilise those assets to drive innovation and adoption of digital payments.

“You will find that most people mainly use their cards to access cash and then use the cash for their next transactions. We need to look for ways to ensure that people use their cards for digital payment rather than just cash withdrawals.

“The other thing is the level of collaboration between traditional banks or deposit money banks, Fintechs, PSB and other payment service platforms. That collaboration needs to be deepened. Traditional banks have their limitations, the cost it entails to set up a bank branch cannot be risked in certain communities because their economy does not allow for it, but setting up an agent does not cost that much. Also, the technologies that the fintechs and payment service operators bring are upscale, and they can reach more people at a cheaper cost.

“The last is the area of education and information, how much information is out there, and how many people are educated about the solutions and the services available to them, so they can be informed to take up these services and solutions? Once we can deal with these three factors, I think Nigeria has a better opportunity than the other countries that have excelled in this area, because of the huge numbers and the transformations happening here.”