Interswitch, Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, has underscored the need for industry players to collaborate with the firm to build sustainable businesses and transform the financial services industry.
At a regional breakfast session with the theme, ‘Accelerating Growth 2.0’, held in Lagos, at the weekend, representatives of commercial banks, microfinance banks, fintechs and other stakeholders in the industry were introduced to a plethora of innovative products and solutions designed by the company to transform the payment ecosystem.
In his keynote address, Group Head, of Business Development at Interswitch Purepay, Babatunde Okufi, who spoke on the ‘Future of Digital Payment Technology for Africa’, acknowledged that Interswitch is at the forefront of driving the growth of digital payments across the country and beyond.
He noted that the company has been enabling businesses, building infrastructure, and providing solutions that allow players within the payment ecosystem to offer top-notch products and services to meet customers’ needs, leveraging Interswitch’s infrastructure.
He said: “We are excited to come to the final leg of the regional breakfast sessions. Over the past five weeks, we have held meaningful and robust conversations with customers across the country. These customers have had the opportunity to experience the latest world-class products, technologies and capabilities designed by Interswitch, which are tailored to meet their unique needs and further drive the growth of their businesses.”
He noted that the products will undoubtedly simplify digital transactions, as well as create a new vista of opportunities for customers.
He said: “Over the last two decades, we have been committed to enabling and helping businesses, including banks, fintechs, microfinance banks, and other financial institutions, thrive and foster growth through our world-class products and groundbreaking initiatives.
“As we draw the curtains on the regional breakfast sessions, we are confident that we have been able to impact businesses and give them expert guidance that will help accelerate growth.”
Also speaking at the event, Head of Retail Payment at Interswitch, Suzan Fasipe, observed that fraud cases are on the increase when it comes to digital payments in the country.
To curtail the activities of fraudulent transactions in the system, she advised the industry to develop a centralised platform that is technologically driven, where industries would have access to a generic list of consumers’ data.
She said: “Before the next fraud would happen, you can easily call that centralised system to confirm that is this transaction valid or not or if there is any pattern of fraud before credit can be given. So, imagine all of us having that access to such data, what we would successfully do is to have a generic list of people we can easily backlist. So, once I blacklist such a person, it would be very hard for him/her to commit fraud in another platform since he knows that every other person has such information.”
On his part, Olanrewaju Adelanwa, Group Head, of Mobile Financial Services at Interswitch, noted that lack of profitability and growth are driving most of the big financial firms out of the industry.
He advised the institutions, including fintech and microfinance banks, to deploy technology in their financial services to ensure efficiency.
