{"id":64810,"date":"2025-04-25T11:16:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T11:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=64810"},"modified":"2025-04-25T11:16:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T11:16:58","slug":"experts-call-for-ecosystem-collaboration-to-drive-financial-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/04\/25\/experts-call-for-ecosystem-collaboration-to-drive-financial-inclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Call for Ecosystem Collaboration to Drive Financial Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adewunmi Oluwaseun<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Stakeholders in Nigeria&#8217;s financial sector have urged for stronger collaboration among financial service providers, telecommunications operators, and tech startups to overcome the challenges of financial inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At the second edition of the Payment Forum Nigeria (PAFON 2.0) held in Lagos, experts highlighted the need for a concerted effort to raise consumer awareness and integrate artificial intelligence (AI), into banking systems to bridge the customer experience gap.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mrs. Ebehijie Momoh, Managing Director of AfriGoPay Financial Services, addressed the forum, praising Nigeria\u2019s progress in financial inclusion, with 64 percent of adults now included in the financial system.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She noted that regulatory reforms like the Bank Verification Number (BVN), and the widespread adoption of smartphones have significantly advanced financial inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Momoh also pointed to AI-based solutions, such as Smile Identity\u2019s facial recognition for KYC verification, as transformative tools for improving customer acquisition and service.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Echoing her sentiments, Mrs. Uche Uzoebo, MD\/CEO of Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities, emphasized AI\u2019s potential to further drive financial inclusion in underserved communities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, panelists like Ibirogba Oluwagunwa, Chairman of the Lagos Chapter of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents, stressed that a lack of collaboration and slow adoption of AI remain significant barriers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They called for better information sharing and a collective push from fintechs to fully leverage the power of AI for digital inclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adewunmi Oluwaseun &nbsp; Stakeholders in Nigeria&#8217;s financial sector have urged for stronger collaboration among financial service providers, telecommunications operators, and tech startups to overcome the challenges of financial inclusion. &nbsp; At the second edition of the Payment Forum Nigeria (PAFON 2.0) held in Lagos, experts highlighted the need for a concerted effort to raise [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":64811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64812,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64810\/revisions\/64812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}