Banks’ must evolve innovative solutions to capture 57% unbanked—Fidelity GMD
Critical sensitive assignment has been given to Nigerian money deposit banks by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo.
In his presentation at the just concluded 2018 Social Media Week (SMW) Lagos, he decried the inability of banks in reducing the gap between the banks and about 57 per cent of Nigerians who are not captured in the financial inclusion drive of the economy.
According to him, Nigerian banks must develop innovative solutions that will bring those outside the banking space to embrace financial institutions services and products.
Explaining more during a breakout session on ‘The Digital Takeover: How millennials are changing the financial landscape’, Okonkwo averred that, because a huge population of the country are youths, “and so, if you need to provide financial services for this class of people, you must understand their buyer needs, customer preference and what is important to them.”
He said more importantly, a lot of youths live on social media. “And so, if you want to connect to them, you must understand what they actually need.”
However, giving an update on the activities of his bank on the issue, Fidelity Bank boss noted that, Fidelity Bank is much more inclined to youths and their goodwill and argued that remains the driver of ongoing digital banking revolution in the bank now.
In his views, “we are not going to rest on that, we are going to continue to innovate and as a financial institution, we have to stay right on top of changes and work closely with the millennial.”
He added that as part of seriousness in grossing digital banking, the bank has hired about 36 people just to focus on the digital banking area, saying “It is just one of the ways we are responding to the transformation going on in the banking industry which is driven by the needs of the millennial”.
He added that there was a need for the bank to understand the young people, employ people who can understand their preferences and provide financial services to them efficiently, saying a lot of youths live on the social media, adding that to connect with them the lender needs to interact with them.
He said, “We are hosting this session today because Fidelity Bank is a youth- inclined bank. This explains why our digital banking is experiencing tremendous growth
“We will not rest because we realise we need to constantly innovate. As a financial institution, we have to stay right on top of changes and work closely with the millennials.”
In his remarks, the Chief Operations and Information Officer, Fidelity Bank, Mr. Gbolahan Joshua, said the company was moving towards investing more in data analytics.
In his submission at the panel session on ‘The Digital Takeover: How Millennials are Changing the Financial Landscape’, he argued that skill sets were changing, and the bank was trying to adapt.
