The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that it will strictly regulate the fintech sector in the country.
According to CBN, fintech has disrupted the Nigerian financial industry, especially in areas such as payment, savings, and micro-lending. In order to regulate the fintech sector, the CBN will form new policies and stricter regulations.
The CBN is also identifying fintech companies which are operating without proper regulatory approval and bring them under regulatory control.
While speaking at the recently-concluded World Bank and IMF meetings, CBN’s deputy governor in charge of Financial Systems Stability, Mrs Aisha Ahmad said, “The way fintech is disrupting the Nigerian financial space, a lot of it has come from the payment space. So, you see them more active in the space for receipts where they are already getting licences from us.”
She added, “We’ve seen disruptions in the savings space and disruptions in the micro-lending space. So, these are not organisations that the CBN is not aware of. But broadly speaking, our focus has been to identify these organisations.”
She pointed out the CBN’s intentions are not to repress the fintech sector in Nigeria. Instead, the CBN is ready to welcome more players into the sector as it helps accelerate financial inclusion in the country. The CBN is targeting 80 percent inclusion by 2020.
Last week, Nigeria’s newly formed Taj Bank announced that it has entered into a partnership with fintech startup Smart Save Integrated Technologies. The partnership will aim to develop strategies to accelerate financial inclusion in the country and bring the low-income earning Nigerians under the financial sector.
Last month, the CBN said it is committed to strengthening money transfer operators in Nigeria as they help facilitate the influx of foreign remittances into the country.