CIBN Pledges to Leverage on Digitalisation

Oluchi Chibuzor and Hamid Ayodeji
The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Lagos State branch has expressed its readiness to continue to leverage on digitalisation to enhance and execute its operations.

The move, according to the branch, becomes imperative considering the massive enhancement the banking and financial service sector has witnessed with the advent of digital innovations in the country.

Disclosing this at the institution’s Annual General Meetings (AGM) and election of new executives, held recently in Lagos, the re-elected branch Chairman, Peter Ashade, pointed out that new trends are gaining momentum at a fast pace as customers find technology driven innovations convenient and flexible.
According to him the emergence of financial technology solutions has resulted in the introduction of several technological advancements in the banking sector.

“Fintech companies, internet banking and mobile banking are just some examples that mark this recent need to adopt digitalisation. Today, some of the latest trends that are revolutionising the Nigerian banking and finance sector include mobile banking, unified payment interface, artificial intelligence, digital only banks, financial technology companies, cloud banking and block chain, ” he said.

Speaking about the impact of technological innovation on the financial sector, he emphasized that recent trends would help reshape the banking and finance industry by generating revolutionary changes of the traditional models.

“This shift is not without challenges, but the customers are quite open to digital innovations and the government is also showing great support for these new norms, “he aded.
On how the COVID-19 pandemic has re-shape the financial landscape in the country, Asade maintained that the impact of the pandemic has redefined the livelihood of the business and economic landscape “so we remain committed to play our quota towards the digitalisations of our operations.

“We are already yielding the harvest of the implementation of digitalisation during the last administration; so, we are taking it to the next level during this present administration.
“We are working towards ensuring we are able to deepen it, thereby ensuring we have a broader reach beyond the shores of Nigeria in terms of impact, in terms of the brand’s visibility and in terms of how we can generate more revenue,” Ashade said.

However, as part of an effort to achieve the State branch mandates and to become accessible to members, he hinted that they have commenced the process to build a new state of the art office as all excos of the branch are returned unopposed.

“Regarding infrastructural development, I am glad to announce that we are at the verge of starting the construction of our state of the art Lagos Bankers House. The existing structure at the Lagos State Secretariat shall be pulled down to give way to a five storey building, “he added.