Committee of e-banking Heads of Nigeria (CeBIH) has called for a regulatory environment that promotes innovation in the epayment industry.
CeBIH Chairman, Tunde Kuponiyi made this call during the annual retreat of the group held in Abuja, with theme, “Payment System Vision 2020 – Creating an enabling environment through policy regulations”.
He said, “For the industry to prosper and for innovation to thrive, a sound complementary regulatory framework is very much required. Such a framework should provide a level playing field for all players to enable the customer to exercise his choices as regards choosing a particular service provider. Other important components for such a regulatory framework would also encompass customer protection issues, fraud prevention issues, security related issues and fair pricing.
Also speaking at the retreat, John Chaplin, a global retail payment expert advocated smart regulation for the payment system in Nigeria. He said though banks desire less regulation, regulation is critical to sustainable competition which is necessary for the growth of the payment industry. He said banks however have a right to better and smarter regulation.
“Frequent rule changes are a sign of bad regulation and deter investment, industry must actively work with regulators to achieve a good outcome. Clear, consistent, even handed and risk-based regulation is the goal”, he said.
Speaking further, he said that, “Leaving the market to market forces will lead to higher cost, which would drive out everybody. Hence the aim of regulation should is drive down cost”.
Kuponiyi said that the retreat was designed to discourse the changes and challenges of the Payment Vison 2020 20 in Nigeria and how this should lead to a paradigm shift in the way banks are doing their business, retaining and increasing their customer base.
“The basic underlying current that runs through this changing landscape is the ever increasing reliance on technology to cater to the needs of customers and process vast number of transactions including payment transactions”, he said.
Commenting on some of the policies introduced by the CBN to enhance epayment in the country, Kuponiyi said, “The question is, are these positive strategic interventions toward the realisation of the vision 2020 20 or are they fragmented policies that will produce little or no impact in the overall scheme of things? I believe that some of the policies have pointed the industry to the direction of the goldmine.
However, there needs to be the official will to drive by the regulator to see the results manifest. For instance, PSV 2020 20 and some of the adjoining policies and guidelines released by CBN reveal some untapped opportunities for banks.
In one of such policies, CBN made it clear that financial inclusion should be seen not only as a social responsibility but also as a potential business model because of the huge untapped market that it seeks to bring into the fold of banking services. Thus this ‘bottom of the pyramid’ which comprises a huge section of the Nigerian population presents a large untapped market for Nigerian banks.”
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
