Ecobank Nigeria Plc has called on sub- Sahara Africa to harness available opportunities in digitisation. Africa with over 1.3 billion population, combined with Gross Domestic Products of 1.5 trillion dollars has tremendous opportunities to harness
digitalisation.
Speaking over the weekend at the 3rd National Fin-tech Conference and Africa Fintech Festival, 2018 edition with the theme: “Fin-tech- Beyond and Hype” in Lagos, Managing Director, Ecobank, Mr. Patrick Akinwuntan, said Africa, as a whole, has an economy where over 95 per cent of transactions were conducted in cash, hence, offers an opportunity it could harness via
digitisation..
He said “Digitisation will provide an important avenue for African economies to leapfrog, not only financial development, but also development across other sectors of the
economy.”
He explained that there were infinite opportunities on the digital platform and fin-tech was working really hard to develop and introduce products that will benefit Africa.
“These changes will only benefit African economies that are ready to embrace digitalisation,” he
said.
Akinwuntan said that mobile devices were also an obvious tool which Africa could use to unleash the power of digitalisation across the continent, adding that; with the rising penetration of mobile broadband, there were more possibilities ahead for
Africa.
“Africa could copy from other continent and countries that had harnessed digitalisation to boost their economy. For instance, Estonia, a small European country, was trying to find its feet post-breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, without much resources from which to rebuild,” he disclosed.
He noted that the Government led a deliberate effort to fast track economic development leveraging digitalisation rooted in the goal to improve the wellbeing of its citizens.
“They invested in a broadband network across the country, digitized government services and incentivized citizens,” Akinwuntan said.
He said that Ecobank was in 36 countries in Africa and was ready to collaborate with all willing partners to make digital payments across Africa a reality.
