By Thompson ABISOLA
The Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Mr Patrick Akinwuntan, says there is need to support and grow the intellectual economy in the country.
Akinwuntan said in a statement on Monday in Lagos that the support was necessary as Nigeria was gradually becoming a major hub in Africa on intellectual economy.
This, the bank chief said, had been possible with the influx of Financial Technology companies and social media channels in the country.
Akinwuntan noted that Ecobank was already partnering with them to offer banking services.
The Financial technology, often shortened to FinTech or fintech is the new technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services.
It is an emerging industry that uses technology to improve activities in finance.
Akinwuntan said, “As you know if you look at the intellectual economy, Nigeria is becoming a major hub in Africa.
“We had Facebook come here to see what was going on, and a number of Fin-tech companies becoming major players globally, attracting investments for the big IT companies and startups.
“Ecobank is seeking to become the partner that provides the banking services for the intellectuals and the economic growth that they are fostering.
“We partner with Fin-techs, we do not compete with them, we understand that they have their value and we now have a digital platform that makes us the platform of choice.
“We also have physical locations that guarantee distribution to the last mile.”
He reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to the use its digital capacity to transform the value chains for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.
Akinwuntan said that would engender more activities in the sub-sector and lead to the overall growth of the economy.
He said that it was part of the overall strategy of the bank to deploy its products with digital appeal such as Omnilite, EcobankPay and Xpresspoints to support business development.
“Omnilite is an Ecobank internet banking platform that allows entrepreneurs perform transactions, payments over the Internet through the bank’s secure website.
“With Omni Lite, customers have easy access to their accounts from anywhere in the world; online real-time account monitoring facility; convenience of conducting banking transactions from comfort of home or office.
“Secured online transactions; easy access to bank information and products; effective, cheaper and easier way for our customers to communicate with the bank on a 24 hours a week basis”, he said.
According to Akinwuntan, EcobankPay is a digital QR code that enables payments using the mobile phone, without the need for a plastic card.
