Communique of KPMG's Digital Summit; Successful Fintechs Showcased

The financial services industry has continued to show significant adoption of digital innovation with the entry of nimble technology solutions, emergence of digital business models, increasing adoption of Fintech services and perhaps more conspicuously, growing local and international investments in technology innovation. On November 1, 2017, Lagos witnessed a landmark gathering of financial services industry practitioners, regulators, thought leaders, investors, fintechs and digital enthusiasts at the KPMG Digital Summit 2017. The Summit themed ‘Leading Through Digital’ was held at Eko Hotel, Lagos and was the sequel to the 2016 KPMG FinTech Summit.

Welcoming the audience, Bisi Lamikanra, Partner and Head of Advisory services, KPMG in Nigeria, explained that KPMG organized the summit to provide a platform that will facilitate the exchange of ideas, distil emerging trends and accelerate the adoption of digital within the country and region.

The discussions kicked off with a presentation on the future of financial services by Boye Ademola, Partner Technology Advisory & Digital Transformation Lead at KPMG in Nigeria. In his presentation, Boye noted that 7 of the 10 most valuable companies (by market capitalization) in the world are digital business models and that businesses that will lead going forward will have to lead through digital. Boye explained that nearly 28 million of 30 million Nigerians with bank accounts were financially underserved and an estimated 66 million Nigerians are financially unserved as they do not have bank accounts. Entities willing to approach the market through digital platforms are best positioned to seize these opportunities.

A prevalent call that was reiterated by many speakers at the summit is the need for increased collaboration between technology companies, innovators, government and regulators. During his talk, Dorel Blitz, Head of Fintech at KPMG in Israel remarked that, “the future of financial services will be effortless banking, contextual advice and liberated experience. In order to lead through Digital, organizations must see data as a valued asset that can be monetized for joint competitive advantage”.

The event also featured two interesting panel discussions; the first of which examined the different ways that Open APIs drive digital innovation and collaboration in financial services. Panelists for this session included Deji Oguntonade, the Divisional Head, Fintech & Innovation, GTBank Plc; Victor Okigbo, the Group Head, Financial Technology & Innovation, Access Bank Plc and Program Director, The Africa Fintech Foundry; Adedeji Olowe, Executive Director, Products & Services, SystemSpecs Limited; and Shola Akinlade, Co-founder & CEO of Paystack. The panel discussion was moderated by Ladi Asuni, an Associate Director at KPMG in Nigeria.

The second panel discussion was on ‘The role of government and regulators in the evolution of fintech’, and it featured discussants including Dipo Fatokun, Director of Banking & Payments System Department, Central Bank of Nigeria; Adebisi Shonubi, the Managing Director of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc; Bunmi Akinyemiju, MD/CEO of Venture Garden Group; and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Flutterwave; Ngozi Chidozie, Partner Management Consulting served as the moderator.

The summit also featured case studies by successful Nigerian Fintech companies Including PayLater, CoinWise, Flutterwave, ALAT by Wema and Riby Finance.

One of the highlights of the summit was the launch of a new publication by KPMG in Nigeria titled, ‘Leading through Digital’. The publication shares KPMG’s insights on how digital platform businesses acquire new customers exponentially by winning the customer and user experience challenge; accelerate time-to-market for products and services through Open APIs; delight customers and engender advocacy by leveraging the power of Analytics, Robotics & AI; and scale quickly by riding on the Cloud. The publication is available for download at www.bit.ly/2zSQpBw.