Disruptive technologies driving transformation in financial services sector—Onyema
The Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema has averred that Nigerian services sector in recent years has been under the disruptive influence of forced transformation driven by technologies.
Speaking at the recently concluded third edition of the NSE Market Data Workshop, with the theme; “Digitisation, Disruption, and Financial Inclusion,” in Lagos, he stressed that the only way Nigerian economy will remain relevant to the global competitiveness in terms of investments is to think globally and act locally within the framework of emerging financial technologies.
In his keynote submission, Onyema averred that “Just as digitalisation is fast gaining momentum in the capital market eco-system with choice purpose-built solutions to tame redundancies, cut costs, and increase efficiencies for greater transparency and alpha returns, the NSE is right on track with every relevant new technologies”.
Though he was quick to decry that “The overall participation of the Nigerian capital market in the fourth industrial revolution is far less than that of our counterparts in developed and emerging economies,” he expressed optimism that the Exchange is on track to catch up with trends after all.
According to him, “To ensure that Nigeria remains a globally competitive investment destination, we need to deepen the collaborative effort among market stakeholders to determine which emerging technologies to pursue within our markets and local context. This year’s theme provides a unique opportunity to assess these three key areas of digitisation, disruptive technologies, and financial inclusion, to proffer solutions for the challenges facing our capital market.
He assured that strategic lessons drawn from the summit “will catalyse the critical-thinking and collaborations that are required to boost the development of innovative, data-driven solutions; as well as their uptake by the investing populace.”
In his submission, NSE boss argued that “As emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud technology, and distributed ledger technology potentially disrupt the capital market infrastructure; access to market data would continue to improve efficiencies and transparency brought by these technologies for the advantage of non-professional investors.
Earlier in her presentation, the Acting Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Mary Uduk, noted that with blossoming collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other sister regulatory agencies, SEC has made important contributions to financial inclusion through valuable guidance and active involvement in the National Financial Strategy (NFS).
Participants who spoke to Business Hilights at the event called for deeper synergy between industry regulators where emerging sector development ideas will be continually shared and good decisions taken for the interest of the volatile economy.
