Africa’s largest integrated payments and digital commerce company, Interswitch, reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to fostering the expansion of the digital payment ecosystem at the TechConnect 3.0 event that was recently conducted at The Lekki Coliseum in Lekki, Lagos, on October 12, 2023.

At the TechConnect 3.0 event, experts from the fintech industry, as well as banks and other financial institutions, shared their insights on the topic of “Adapting, Scaling, and Advancing with Fintech.”

The event featured a platform where industry players shared, at varying lengths, data-driven strategies, empirical expositions, projected trends, and forecasts to industry challenges. They also weighed in on steps that need to be taken within the financial sector to nimbly adapt to changing technological and economic conditions, scale operations, and advance its services to better serve a wide spectrum of customers.

The first of the noteworthy series of events began on September 7, 2023 at the International Conference Centre in Ibadan, which is the capital of the state of Oyo. The event then moved on to other cosmopolitan towns in the country, such as Abuja, Enugu, Port-Harcourt, and Lagos, which hosted the grand finale.

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Executive of Interswitch Purepay remarks

During his remarks at the event, Akeem Lawal, Managing Director of Payment Processing and Switching at Interswitch Purepay, emphasised the significance of researching current trends in digital payment technology that are occurring all over the world.

He emphasised the significance of collaboration as a means to improve the prospects of the nation’s digital transformation becoming a complete success.

According to Lawal, “TechConnect 3.0 exhibits Interswitch’s unwavering commitment to leading the charge in the advancement of the payment ecosystem. Interswitch has been at the frontiers of innovation in Africa particularly in the financial sector and is utilizing cutting-edge technological solutions that can facilitate contactless payment transactions. Today, Interswitch’s digital innovation cuts across peer-to-peer lending, bots, biometrics, mobile banking, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and decentralized finance (DeFi), among others to help address scaling challenges and empower individuals and communities to break free from the clutches of poverty.”

Lawal further stated that “Partnership and strong ties are the cornerstones of transformation in today’s rapidly dynamic digital world. This is why, Interswitch will continue to leverage partnership to drive the growth of the payment industry.”

Additionally, Chijioke Eze, who is the Business Development Manager for Interswitch’s Financial Services Business, delivered his remarks during the event. He made the observation that businesses must train their employees in risk-based anti-fraud tactics in order to protect themselves from being victims of fraud. In addition to this, he discussed the several sorts of fraudulent activity that financial institutions need to be aware of, such as identity and processing fraud, charge backs, and cyberattacks.

In addition, there was a panel discussion during the event with the topic “Advancing Cross-Border Payments Within the African Continent: Opportunities for Financial Services Sectors.” The panellists explored how financial institutions may harness technology to address the issues associated with cross-border payments, thereby making it possible for individuals, company owners, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to transact without any complications and increasing the level of financial inclusion across the African market.

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Awards given to some banks

The participants on the panel brought up the point that intra-industry alliances would make it possible for financial companies to drive growth and create a formidable ecosystem by means of one-of-a-kind solutions such as API gateways, mobile wallets, tokenization, and many more.

Awards were given to a number of financial institutions, including First Bank, UBA, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Premium Trust Bank, Opay, Moniepoint, and Accion MFB, amongst others, in recognition of the commendable contributions they have made to the industry. These awards were presented as part of Interswitch’s reaffirmation of its role as a collaborative enabler.