FinTechs Not Threat to Banks, Says Access Bank

• FinTechs Not Threat to Banks, Says Access Bank

Access Bank has said it sees the emergence of financial technologies (FinTechs) as collaborators in the quest to deepen its product and market development and not as threat to traditional banking.

Its Executive Director, Mr Victor Etuokwu who spoke yesterday at a news briefing ahead the first edition of Africa Fintech Foundary (AFF) Disrupt 2017 conference in Lagos, said innovation remained the only insurance against irrelevance, adding that the bank will continue to work with FinTechs to offer better services to customers.

He said the lender founded and funded the AFF in order to promote innovation in Nigeria, Africa and the global community, adding that AFF is Access Bank accelerator, which is seeking to create new opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Etuokwu, the Foundary is to provide a platform to inspire and challenge African innovators and entrepreneurs.

According to him AFF will provide Africa companies seeking to launch their products, with capacity building and training in business development.

‘’It will provide connectivity to global innovation grids, promote access to capital, create opportunities for partnerships and showcase best practices and successes in Africa-led innovation solutions.

‘’The world we live in is changing. As a bank, we are looking for better ways to serve our customers.

‘’So, in order to be and remain relevant in the ever-changing world, we had to be innovative.

‘’AFF and the AFF Disrupt conference are ways to grow and maintain the market share of Access Bank.

‘’AFF is here to disrupt the African continent and it will impact not only the banking sector, but will impact both health, security, agriculture and the economy in general,’’ he said.

The Head of AFF, Mr Victor Okigbo said the Foundary was supported by Access Bank, Microsoft, IBM, Saas and other technology majors.

Okigbo said the facility would be officially inaugurated on December 13 while the AFF Disrupt conference would hold on December 14 in Lagos.

He said that the facility would be conducting innovation tour to different parts of the country and four African cities, so as to encourage start-ups to take advantage of the Foundary to improve on their innovative ideas.

Okigbo said the first edition of its FinTech conference, tagged: AFF Disrupt would bring together like-minded investors and partners to collaborate and join the AFF.

Event Coordinator, AFF Disrupt conference, Mr Adeleke Adekoya said the event will be a good opportunity for start-ups to take advantage of partner network.

Adekoya said the event will be an opportunity for partners to create linkages and networks that could help grow their businesses.

He said vetting process is ongoing and a total of 12 start-ups would be selected from about 400, to demonstrate and exhibit their innovations at the conference.