By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The future of banking in Nigeria will be influenced by millennials, generation z and generation alpha because of their significant size in the population of the country, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Ecobank Nigeria, Mrs Ibukunoluwa Oyedeji, has submitted.
According to her, these sets of people constitute 92 per cent of the population of Nigeria and are the major consumers of banking products in the country.
As a result, Mrs Oyedeji want banks and government institutions to get them involved in the process of creating and developing new payment solutions, noting that millennials have brought about great disruption in the payment space both as consumer and owner of the products.
“The meteoric growth of payments, which is much more than corporate and investment banking in the last few years, is an indicator of future growth potential as the world moves more and more to digital.
The Fintechs are already exploiting the disruptions and have grown exceedingly in the past few years. The combined evaluation of just two Fintech playing in this space exceeds the market capitalization of six Nigerian banks with an average of 60 years of operation and a median leadership age of 56.
“They have understood the needs of these demographics which make up about 92 per cent of the population of Nigeria currently,” she stated.
Mrs Oyedeji, while speaking at the recent 14th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), where she presented a paper titled Millennials as Game Changers for Future Payments, maintained that youths have demonstrated a strong entrepreneurial spirit as Nigeria remains one of the top three hubs for fintech investments and activities in Africa which removes the question of skill gap.
“For the new generation, it’s about the solution and not necessarily product. They are very digital savvy, and we must start playing to their needs. We must engage them as our employees and our consumers. We can actually go to the answer and solve backwards to the question.
“The skill is already in the market to provide all that is required. The Fintechs are already doing what the consumers want and will continue to do that if the banking sector doesn’t jump on the trend,” the banker said.
She submitted that “the millennials have the capacity to create wealth even more than the old bankers and that is something the financial institutions, governments and regulators can tap.
“They want convenience, digital, and timely service delivery. Banking is essential but not a bank. They are very quick to jump from one vendor to the other. There is a need for collaboration between the millennials, government, and financial institutions.”
