FG moves to curb glitches in digital payment
The Federal Government said it is working to remove all glitches against seamless digital payments and e-commerce across the country. The effort which is being spearheaded by the Office of the Vice President through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, and development partners is to ensure seamless money transfer using their mobile phones and […]
The Federal Government said it is working to remove all glitches against seamless digital payments and e-commerce across the country.
The effort which is being spearheaded by the Office of the Vice President through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, and development partners is to ensure seamless money transfer using their mobile phones and other devices.
Deputy Chief of Staff to the President (Office of the Vice President), Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday during a stakeholders’ roundtable.
Hadejia reiterated the resolve of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to drive financial inclusion, using different strategies for different digital payment infrastructure that essentially reach the last mile and serve the financially excluded.
According to him, there are very few countries in the West that have the kind of ease of payment and banking that is available in Nigeria.
“It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world, and by the time we begin to address these issues, we can use that reach to enter into the e-commerce stage. And like I said, from our own perspective, we are also worried about the exclusion that is inherent so that eligible Nigerians, no matter where they are, can have access to quality, simple financial services that are beyond educational and poverty levels.
“From the Office of the Vice President’s perspective, we look at digital payment and identity as really the last stumbling block in opening up e-commerce in Nigeria.
“Yes, there is e-commerce going on, but I think the biggest impediments surround the ease of payment, the identity issue and several things we are pushing, which are all interlinked.
“We are driving financial inclusion in the Office of the Vice President, which has to do with the strategy for different digital payment infrastructure that would essentially reach the last mile and serve the financially excluded.
“So, resolving these will amount to killing several birds with one stone. We have been to India and seen what robust PPI can do to e-commerce, and not just e-commerce but trade generally,” Hadejia said.
Earlier, the Principal Research Fellow, International Economic Development Group, Dr Max Mendez-Parra, ODI Global, said the organisation had been working with the African Continental Free Trade Secretariat and other African countries on Digital Trade on a wide range of coordination of the negotiations of digital trade protocol.
Mendez-Parra explained that the implementation of the AFCTA is transformative for the African economy, especially the Nigerian economy, adding that the ODI is assisting the government and AFCTA Secretariat in Accra on different aspects associated with the AFCTA.