FirstBank’s FinTech summit to highlight open banking

First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. says the 2021 FinTech summit scheduled to hold virtually on Oct. 7, will highlight the impact of open banking on financial inclusion.

The Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, said this in a statement made available to our reporter on Sunday in Lagos.

Adeduntan said the 2021 edition of the summit, the fifth in its series, is themed: “Open Banking and its Derivative Opportunities for the Financial Ecosystem.”

He said: “The need for open banking in Nigeria cannot be overemphasised as the importance goes beyond just convenience to its game-changing impact in transforming value creation, product conceptualisation and closing the financially excluded gap.”

He said through standardised and accessible open Application Programming Interface technologies, innovators and product developers alike were now availed a wealth of big data and attendant insights.

with the potential to completely redefine standards for product conceptualisation, customer satisfaction and service delivery across Africas largest economy.

“Our annual FinTech summit in the past four years has been a platform of leading conversations and practices that have impacted the financial technology and electronic banking eco-system.

“This has been integral to bridging the gap and digital divide of modern banking in today’s global village.

“Participants at our summits have been enlightened on ways to optimally carry out their digital transactions and business activities in safe and seamless ways.

“Financial services have continually evolved in Nigeria and the world over and we intend as in previous years to use our FinTech summit this year to discuss different views on open banking and its associated opportunities with the goal of building on the successes achieved in the past,” he said.

He added that the experts and participants at the summit would explore the depth and range of derivative opportunities set to be triggered by the application of an open banking regime in the country.

Adeduntan said that Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, the Lead Faculty of Tekedia Institute with a PhD in Engineering from John Hopkins University, USA, would be leading the discussion as the keynote speaker.

The virtual event is opened to everyone, but participants are required to register via a link provided by the bank.