Interswitch reiterated its long-standing dedication to driving the growth of the digital payment ecosystem at the TechConnect 3.0 event held at The Lekki Coliseum, Lekki, Lagos on October 12, 2023.

The TechConnect 3.0 event brought together eggheads across the fintech sector, banks, and other financial institutions who expounded on the theme “Adapting, Scaling, and Advancing with Fintech.”

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

The first event in the notable series kicked off on September 7, 2023, at the International Conference Centre, Ibadan, the state capital of Oyo, and spanned across other cosmopolitan cities in the country, including Abuja, Enugu, Port-Harcourt and Lagos, where the grand finale took place.

Speaking at the event, Akeem Lawal, Managing Director, Payment Processing and Switching, Interswitch Purepay, emphasized the need to explore global trends in digital payment technology. He stressed the importance of partnership to increase the country's chances of a successful digital transformation.

According to Lawal, “TechConnect 3.0 exhibits Interswitch’s unwavering commitment to leading the charge in advancing the payment ecosystem. Interswitch has been at the forefront of innovation in Africa particularly in the financial services 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.”

Chijioke Eze, Business Development Manager, Financial Services Business, Interswitch, also gave his remarks at the event. He noted that organisations must equip their staff with risk-based strategies for tackling fraud to avoid falling prey. He also stated the types of fraud financial institutions must be familiar with including identity and processing fraud, chargebacks, and cyberattacks.

The event also featured a panel session tagged “Advancing Cross-Border Payments Within the African Continent: Opportunities for Financial Services Sectors.” The panelists discussed how financial institutions could leverage technology to address the challenges associated with cross-border payments enabling individuals, business owners and SMEs to transact seamlessly and deepen financial inclusion across the African market.

The panelists pointed out that intra-sector partnerships would enable financial firms to drive growth and create a formidable ecosystem through unique products such as API gateway, mobile wallet, tokenization, and more.

Awards were presented to Premium Trust Bank, Opay, Moniepoint, Accion Microfinance Bank, among others in acknowledgement of their laudable contributions to the sector, and as part of Interswitch’s reaffirmation as a collaborative enabler.