In the last 20 years, the Fintech Industry has created over 20,000 jobs and supported over 530,000 businesses in Nigeria. Mr. Akeem Lawal, the Managing Director of Interswitch Purepay, made this point while delivering the keynote on "Sustainable Impacts in Fintech, e-Government & Emerging Technologies" at the third-day session of the 2022 Nigeria Fintech Week.

According to him, out of 250 fintech companies in Nigeria, 96 have received investments of over US$400m to scale their operations. He also noted that over 2m Nigerians have seen their lives transformed by the activities of the fintech industry. At the same time, over 270 government initiatives have also been enabled to improve service delivery to citizens.

The technology expert emphasized the need for Nigeria to build the necessary talent pool to fast-track the country's digital transformation through investments in the technology infrastructure.

He added, "Emerging technologies that will shape the future include Big Data & AI and Blockchain and Crypto. Nigeria must decide if it will be a producer or consumer of these technologies, creating value for Africa and the future generations". 

Other keynote presentations at the event were "Emerging Payment Landscape and Opportunities," "Learning from APEC-The Role and Opportunity for Fintech and Regtech in a Post COVID Environment,” and "Building a Sustainable Fintech Ecosystem-Cybersecurity Imperatives." 

It also featured panel sessions on "Fintech Industry Forum-A Dissection of Challenges in the Nigerian Fintech Ecosystem," "eNaira, The Enabler of the New Phase of the Financial Inclusion Drive" and "Sustainable Pipeline of Competitive and Global Talents."