The Director, Banking Supervision Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Mustapha Haruna has said that the apex bank would continue to monitor FinTech companies in Nigeria, as an important sector in its operations.
Haruna, represented by Adekunle Adeniji, Assistant Director in the department, stated this at the end of the 31st Finance Correspondents and Business Editors seminar on Thursday, in Enugu.
The two-day seminar, organised by the CBN, has “Trends in Nigerian payments system: regulating the fintech digital playing field” as its theme.
Speaking on the topic, “The Fintech phenomenon: implications for supervision and regulation “, Haruna said that as a regulator, the bank would ensure opportunities in FinTechs were properly harnessed.
“So, as we onboard fintechs into financial services, we need to have a proper understanding of the technology companies and what risks they bring; and then we need to effectively manage these threats — threat to consumer data protection, among others.
“While we may not exactly eliminate these threats, we must ensure that we are able to minimise those threats to consumers and to financial institutions, as well as the financial system and its stability.
” Authorities also need to ensure that regulated government entities, necessary government structures will identify and manage all these risks arising from the use of these activities,” he said.
Haruna also said that another reason the apex bank needed to keep an eye on the Fintechs was because of the huge market value in its operations globally.
He said,” the market value of fintech companies globally is projected to hit about $310 billion dollars by next year”.
He said the census carried out by Ernst and Young, known as the Nigerian Fintech Census 2020, revealed that fintechs in Nigeria would have raised more than 439 million dollars to boost the sector by the end of 2020.
According to him, this is pointing to the significance of this sector in financial services, inclusion and in what we do.
He said that it was extremely important that the bank kept tabs on this sector so as to continue to ensure safe and sound financial system stability.
He said that the report also showed that 55.7 per cent of all capital investment in fintech space, were foreign direct investments while 43 per cent was got locally within the economy in Nigeria.
